Nidaime War Hawk
by NoTailjinchuuriki
Summary: AU. What would have happened if our favorite Ramen slurping Jinchuriki was trained by the leader of ROOT? If so then for what reason would the old War Hawk take an interest in him? Does he want a weapon or could he want something more? Would Danzo convert the boy to his way of thinking or...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Random stuff I'm Changing (may or may not decide to explain them further in the future)**

Forgive me, my first fanfic and I doubt I'd be able to explain all these events through the fiction properly. If I get better and this becomes popular enough, I may do some of these as independent stories.

**1. Konan was killed by Hanzo.**

**2. The Uchiha clan decided to negotiate and abandoned the plan to revolt so Itachi never had to kill them. All Uchiha have a seal on the back of their necks now that prevents them from unlocking Mangekyo Sharingan effective after the negotiations were over. ( Itachi, Tobi, Danzo and Kakashi still have M.S. though.)**

**3. the rookie 9 were born on the same year as Lee, Neji and Tenten.**

**4. Orochimaru will remain part of the akatsuki until he either dies or the organization is nullified. **

**5. Itachi is in ANBU.**

**6. Shisui is still dead (not really a change, but I figured I might as well say it.)**

**7. Anko does not have a curse mark**

**8. The Wave mission won't be told through this fic and will be done by a team that does not include Naruto.**

**Chapter 1**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Konoha Academy 8:00pm

Aoba Yamashiro, a man with sunglasses and gravity defying black hair, sat in his office at Konoha Academy looking over the new role sheet to see the next batch of academy students he would teach. The Chunin felt like crying when he saw that there were 54 students in his class this year due to the 'baby boom' that happened the year before the nine tails attack. For all these years the Academy instructors have been praying that they would not be the unlucky soul that would be stuck with such a large number of genin hopefuls for five years.

"_Just when I thought that I had a nice balance between my training for the Jonin exams and my job as an instructor_," Aoba thought to himself. It wasn't that Aoba disliked teaching; his dream was in fact to become a Jonin sensei and have his very own genin team, he was hoping that he could get enough training in to take the Jonin exams and reach the rank of Jonin or Tokubetsu Jonin by next year.

Aoba perked up "_okay maybe I won't be able to take the exam this year, but maybe my chance will come the one after that so it's not completely hopeless," _Aoba thought as he decided to take another look over the list one more time.

The man noticed that he had a large number of clan heirs in this class he saw the names: Aburame Shino, Akamichi Chouji, Hyuuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke… "Hey maybe this won't be so bad, after all who else could brag that they got to teach all four heirs of the four noble clans," Aoba said to himself as he continued reading through the list until he saw the name Uzumaki Naruto.

Aoba just sat in his seat completely still for a few minutes before muttering to himself "Uzumaki… Naruto." Aoba was cursing his luck, getting stuck with the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. Naruto started the Academy 2 years earlier than most kids when he turned five because the sandaime figured it would be a good idea to give the kid a head start, but the boy has failed to advance twice now and he's built up quite a reputation as a prankster that gives his students a hard time. Aoba didn't hate the boy, but that didn't mean he necessarily liked him either, even if he wasn't the 'prince of pranks' Aoba would do everything in his power to avoid him because he reminded him of the family he lost.

"I get stuck with such a large number of students and the Uzumaki!" Aoba yelled. "_Life just isn't fair_" Aoba thought to himself not noticing someone opened his office door.

A silver haired man walked into the office "Hey Aoba-san, I couldn't help but over hear that you got the fox brat and the 'baby boom' generation." Aoba looked up and saw the face of Mizuki. Aoba looked downwards and let out a depressing sigh. Mizuki patted the man's shoulder "don't let it get to you. Hey you feel like going out for drinks tonight? It'll be on me," Mizuki offered. "_Well he deserves some sort of reward, for having to put up with the demon along with twice the brats that we other instructors need to deal with. It could have been me if things were slightly different_."

Before Aoba could say anything an ANBU appeared via shunshin and spoke "Yamashiro Aoba, your presence has been requested please come with me."

Mizuki shrugged "Well if the hokage wants to see you, then you better not keep him waiting. We'll hang out some other time," said the silver haired chunin as he walked off. "_Guess I'll see what Iruka's up to_."

Aoba got out of his seat and proceeded to follow the ANBU. As soon as the two left the academy, the ANBU began walking in the opposite direction of the hokage tower. Aoba turned to the ANBU "Hey wait a minute aren't we supposed to be heading to the tower?"

Tthe ANBU stopped for a moment and said, "Your scheduled meeting will be held in another location." Then the ANBU continued to walk. Aoba was a little doubtful, but followed the ANBU. They continued to walk until they reached a secluded area where the ANBU turned around and started to partially remove his mask. Aoba saw a red eye then fell into slumber.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Aoba woke up in an unknown location with his wrists, ankles and waist all bound to a chair. Aoba knew it was pointless to struggle and cursed himself for being captured so easily. "Hmm… most people would have tried to fight against their restraints as their first reaction instead of just sitting there," said an elderly voice from behind Aoba who was trying to turn his head to get a glimpse of the man. After giving up Aoba decided to look around the room instead and saw a table with a purple drape over it, the drape had a large ball shaped bulge under it. "Not going to ask who I am or what I want?" the voice asked before he heard footsteps as the owner of the voice walked into view. An elderly man with the right side of his face bandaged stood before Aoba

"Shimura Danzo?" said Aoba. Danzo smiled "What do you want with me? Why did you have that Uchiha abduct me, a fellow shinobi of the leaf? Why-" Aoba was cut off as he felt a kunai against his throat.

The voice of the 'ANBU' from earlier spoke "you will address him as Danzo-dono and you do not question Danzo-sama." Danzo did a one handed signal and the kunai was removed from the man's throat. Aoba heard the swift noise of the 'ANBU' leaving, but Aoba couldn't be too sure that he was really gone.

Danzo was looking at a file "Yamashiro Aoba; rank: Chunin, age: 25, blood type: O, nature release: fire, family: deceased since the nine tails attack seven years ago, dream: wishes to become a Jonin-sensei." Danzo closed the file and looked at the bound Aoba. "I have a proposition for you." Aoba didn't have many choices so he just nodded. "I can get you the training you need to pass the Jonin exams."

Aoba's eyes widened "And what do you want in return?"

Danzo smiled "for you to simply do your job." Aoba looked puzzled then Danzo went into a little more detail. "I want you to make sure Uzumaki Naruto becomes as strong as he possibly can under your care as his chunin instructor."

"What is this? Some plan to make me into one of your pawns? Are you planning to make the Kyubi kid into some kind of weapon and let me guess, you want me to become his Jonin instructor when he graduates too rite?" Aoba started struggling "Well it won't work! Even if I went along with it there's no way that kid would take his education seriously from what I've read in his files."

Danzo looked at the man "All I'm asking is that you teach your student properly, after you get your genin team, our business together will be done. I'll even let you personally choose the three genin to receive your instruction." Aoba didn't trust anything the man said he knew there had to be something more to this than teaching the Uzumaki child. "Of course… you won't be the only one tutoring the boy. I also want you to turn a blind eye to me and my ROOT training him as well as withhold certain skills he will develop under my training from his personal record."

Aoba narrowed his eyes "_So he does want to make him into a weapon." _ "It won't work Hokage-sama has the Biju crystal ball, that allows him to keep track of all Jinchuriki within the village."

Danzo chuckled "Yes, that ball was the reason why the villagers never went as far as physical abuse when it came to the young Uzumaki because they feared that Hiruzen could be watching the boy's every move," said Danzo as he walked across the room to the table and removed the drape revealing the biju crystal ball. Aoba's eyes widened and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Danzo "How do I have Hiruzen's prized crystal ball? Personally my ROOT found it far too easy to snatch it from his office in the confusion of the Hyuuga incident. If I was hokage, I'd make sure my office was secure." Danzo said looking down at the ball showing an image of the Jinchuriki sleeping in his bed before he turned back to Aoba "the reason Hiruzen has not informed anyone of the ball's disappearance is that the civilians and even some shinobi would take advantage of this. So… do we have a deal?"

Aoba just merely nodded and Danzo made a hand signal. Soon the uchiha 'ANBU' came back into view. "Good, it would be wise to up the curriculum of the academy. Have all the students learn the tree climbing and water walking exercises before they graduate; we can't have Naruto becoming too much stronger than the rest of your students. It would make things suspicious." Danzo made another hand seal before the 'ANBU' partially removed his mask and put Aoba to sleep again.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Aoba woke up in his apartment the following morning. "Was that all just a dream," he said to himself before spotting the marks from his restraints on his arms. Aoba sighed "_I guess it wasn't_" he thought to himself as he climbed out of bed.

Aoba began to wonder if he should just go to the hokage with the information on Danzo's plans but then he spotted a note taped to his bathroom door. The raven haired man pulled it down and read it

_Dear Mr. Yamashiro,_

_While you were out Danzo-sama placed a modified version of the juinjutsu seals he places on his ROOT on your tongue, if you try and share any information on Danzo-sama with anyone you will die._

_ROOT_

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End

Tell me what you all think.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: over 120 views, 2 reviews, 8 follows and 4 favs. Well at least it's good to know I got a little attention, but let's see if I could do better. Thank you to those that reviewed and faved.**

**Also the Yagura in this chapter is the filler one, not the Jinchuriki.**

**Chapter 2**

_1 week later~_

Aoba Yamashiro stood in front of his bathroom mirror looking at the juinjutsu seal on his tongue. Aoba sighed and decided to get something to eat. Aoba thought for a moment that he could just show the seal to someone, but decided against it since it was possible that Danzo could detonate it remotely and there really was no harm in helping the Uzumaki. Suddenly, a ROOT officer appeared via shunshin. The ROOT handed Aoba a note "Danzo-sama's orders" the ROOT said before disappearing in another shunshin.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Aoba now stood before his new class and watched them chat between themselves, alone. "_I wonder where Kotetsu and Izumo are. It's already been ten minutes since class started; I can't wait for them any longer_." Aoba decided to start the class so he clapped his hands to gain the class's attention. "Okay class my name is Yamashiro Aoba, but all of you will address me as Aoba-sensei or Yamashiro-sensei," said the man as he wrote down his name on the large blackboard.

"Hai Aoba-sensei," said the class in unison.

Aoba nodded and began taking role; everyone was accounted for except Uzumaki Naruto. Aoba sighed "_I should've known he wouldn't show. This'll make turning him into a decent shinobi difficult_," thought Aoba before he heard someone storming down the hallway. The door slammed open with Kotetsu and Izumo covered in paint with the later carrying a bound and gagged blond 7-year old. The class stared at the three new people as the two adults started to untie the blond. Aoba cleared his throat "Okay class these two are my assistant instructors you will address them as Kotetsu-sensei and Izumo-sensei" he said gesturing to the two adults.

"Hai Aoba-sensei," said the class in unison as the blond boy began his trek to an empty seat.

**Naruto POV **

The blond sat next to a blue haired girl with silver eyes. Naruto recognized that this was the girl that he saved from those older kids last week "hi my name is Uzumaki Naruto. So what's your name?" the blond asked as the bluenette turned redder and redder with every new word the blond said. The blond noticed this and wondered if the girl was ill. After a few moments, the blond received no answer so he just decided to turn his attention to his new sensei with an annoyed expression.

Naruto noticed the name written on the board 'Yamashiro Aoba' and he wondered if this guy is anything like his two previous sensei that would punish him for the mistakes he made, but do nothing to help him correct his flaws. Naruto shrugged "_well I'll just prank him like the rest if he chooses to ignore me_" Aoba went on to tell the class what would be expected of them and Naruto just tuned him out, since he already heard this speech twice. After that Aoba spoke of the theory of chakra and Naruto went to sleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto and the rest of the class stood in the Academy training area; they watched Kotetsu-sensei demonstrate how to throw shuriken. "… and if you practice hard enough you'll be able to do this" said Kotetsu as he threw two hand-full's of shuriken and hit the bull's-eye on all eight of the targets he was aiming for simultaneously. The class awed as Kotetsu stood proud with his head held up high and eyes closed, basking in the praise from his students.

Izumo walked over to his fellow chunin and placed his hand on his shoulder, bringing his friend back to reality "Okay, Kotetsu, time to let the kids have a try. First we'll bring out the Styrofoam shuriken and-" Izumo was interrupted by Aoba speaking up.

"No for this class we'll start them off with metal shuriken, I figured we should up the curriculum for this class since we have this many students to teach." Izumo was about to argue, but sighed instead since Aoba was the one in charge and he did have a point since they'd have to make sure all the students could throw the shuriken properly; it would be too time consuming for a class this size to do it twice, with both the Styrofoam and metal shuriken.

Izumo walked over to Aoba and whispered in his ear "fine, but I take no responsibility if any of these kids get hurt. It's all on you." Aoba nodded and Izumo left to gather up the metal shuriken.

The students lined up alphabetically by surnames with the orphan children with no surname in front. "Tenten," called out Aoba as a young brown haired girl with her hair tied up in two buns stepped forward and grabbed her shuriken. Surprisingly the girl managed to throw all her shuriken one at a time without cutting herself and hit all ten targets, but only one of them hit dead center. "67 points," stated Aoba as Tenten moved to the back of the line. "Yagura," said Aoba as a grey haired boy stepped forward and took his shuriken. Unlike Tenten, Yagura cut himself 3 times as he threw the shuriken and only hit 4 targets with none of them landing on the bull's-eye "18 points" Aoba stated and this continued until Aoba called "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Alright, now it's finally my turn dattebayo! Now everyone stand back and watch how a future hokage handles this!" The blond was really excited since this would be his first time using real shuriken. The blond threw seven of them and cut himself every time; five of them didn't even reach halfway to their targets and the other two sailed into the bushes. The other students started to snicker and Aoba sighed.

"Naruto" the man spoke up gaining the attention of the blond. Naruto narrowed his eyes expecting to get punished, but Aoba walked up to him and gave him a friendly smile. Aoba realigned the boy's fingers on the shuriken, told him not to hold the shuriken so tightly and demonstrated a flicking motion for the blond to imitate. "Now give it another try," said the sunglasses wearing man and Naruto nodded. The blond threw a shuriken and it missed the bull's-eye by a small margin.

"Yatta!" screamed the boy as the other kids stopped snickering. Naruto threw the other two shuriken and one landed in the second ring while the other hit dead center. The students were stunned that the blond was able to improve so fast and the other instructors were stunned that Aoba actually helped the Jinchuriki.

Aoba himself was surprised that a little bit of advice made this much of a difference and stood there staring until he realized that he forgot to say the score "25 points!" Aoba yelled out. It was at this moment Naruto decided that he would never prank Aoba-sensei.

Every student got another four tries at the shuriken practice; the only ones to score higher than Naruto in total scoring on all five ventures were Tenten, Uchiha Sasuke and Aburame Shino. After practicing shuriken Aoba had the students run laps and after that they received a lecture on combat strategy followed by the history of Konohagakure. Since too many students got injured in shuriken practice there were no taijutsu spars or strength building exercises that day and class ended earlier than it usually would.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto arrived home and was surprised to find his door unlocked. The blond cautiously opened the door and made his way inside. The blond saw an elderly man with half his face bandaged sitting in his chair while leaning forward on a walking stick. "Who are you?" the blond asked cautiously ready to run right back out the door at any moment.

The man smiled "Shimura Danzo."

"What do you want?"

"To help you grow stronger."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and took a step backwards to the door. "Why would you want to help me? Besides the Ichirakus and Hokage-jiji nobody ever wants to help me they either ignore me or tell me that I'm worthless! And how do you expect me to trust you when you just broke into my home!?" explained Naruto as his voice grew louder and louder.

The man leaned back into his chair and removed a document from his jacket. "If you're having problems trusting me, perhaps this will persuade you?" Danzo said, placing the document on the table. Naruto just stood there not intending to get closer to the man.

"Come now wouldn't you like to know the identity of your mother?"

Naruto's eyes widened "You knew who my Kaa-san was, but how? Not even hokage-jiji knew who she was." The blond lost the tenseness in his body and made his way to the file, temporarily forgetting that the man in front of him had broken into his home.

"Oh, Hiruzen knew very well who your Kaa-san was young man."

Naruto was just about to pick up the file when he heard Danzo say this. The blond looked the man in his eye and said "No you lie! Hokage-jiji wouldn't lie to me like that, dattebayo."

"He's the Hokage there isn't much he doesn't know about in this village. It's highly doubtful that he wouldn't know who your Kaa-san was seeing how there has only been one other person to live in this village within the last eight years with the surname Uzumaki." When Danzo finished, Naruto quickly snatched up the file and read it. There was silence for a good twenty minutes as Naruto read the file over and over again.

"It says here that Kaa-san's name was Uzumaki Kushina and her Jonin instructor when she was a genin was… Shimura Danzo." There was silence between the two for a few seconds before Naruto spoke again "Wh-what was she like?"

"She was a lot like you; loud, short tempered and a bit of a trouble maker. She could even ingest large quantities of ramen and-" Danzo was interrupted by Naruto.

"In… joust large quanto-thighs?"

Danzo looks at the boy "_I'm… going to have to work on his vocabulary_" Danzo thought to himself. "Ingestlarge quantities; it means that she could eat a lot," Danzo said putting emphasis on the gest and tities.

"Why didn't you just say that?"

Danzo sighed before continuing "her dream was to become the first female hokage."

Naruto's eyes widened at this piece of information "would you please train me like Kaa-san, Danzo-sensei?" Danzo nodded his head causing the boy to shoot his fists upwards with a big smile on his face.

"There are some conditions that you must agree to before we begin this training." Naruto nodded and took a seat.

"First: you cannot tell anyone about me or your Kaa-san.

Second: you must keep any skills you learn from me a secret until you graduate the Academy.

Third: You will only visit Hiruzen once a month from now on, instead of twice a week like you do currently.

Fourth: I will teach you your mother's preferred art, Fuinjutsu, if you promise to make a set number of seals for me every month.

Fifth: If you ever invent your own Fuinjutsu seals you will create a set number of those for me as well.

Sixth: once you graduate the Academy I will ask that you go on a few missions for me, you will complete them without your future team knowing.

Seventh: every weekday at 5:00pm and every weekend at 6:00am you will meet me or one of my men behind the academy monument; if you see no one there that means that you let someone follow you, in that event double back and return in half an hour. Is all this clear?" Naruto wasn't sure if he would remember all that so Danzo had to go through the conditions three times before the boy finally got it memorized and agreed.

"Rest for today as I get everything for your training tomorrow prepared." Danzo said as he left Naruto's residence with the 'Kushina file'.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Aoba's apartment

The ROOT Uchiha appeared via shunshin in front of Aoba "Well done, Mr. Yamashiro. Thanks to you letting the children practice with metal shuriken and injure themselves; you had the perfect excuse to end classes early so that Danzo-sama had enough time to convince the Jinchuriki before his ANBU patrol's shift started." Aoba sweated a little. "And now to start your training, follow me," said the ROOT before he and Aoba walked out the door.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unknown location

Danzo sat at his desk staring at the Kushina file with a grin. "The Uzumaki are indeed remarkable," he said to himself while he reminisced. He remembered how useful Kushina was to him when she was under his command. The girl invented and taught him several of the seals he uses today that was up until she got promoted to Chunin and started dating Namikaze Minato. Minato informed Kushina of Danzo's ROOT then she cut all ties with the old war hawk. "I'll make sure that this Uzumaki will remain loyal to me."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This chapter will include a filler character that is not seen in many fanfics. In fact I can't even recall one fanfic I've seen this character in.**

"_Italics" _= thoughts

**Chapter 3**

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto was excited to be able to train under the same sensei as his mother. The boy decided to celebrate the one way he knew how, a trip to Ichiraku's ramen. He grabbed his frog shaped wallet and ran out his door.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto's venture to the ramen stand was the same as his journey to everywhere else; the villagers would glare at him with their hateful eyes and whisper amongst themselves. Naruto heard words like demon and monster then something about a law. The mention of a law caught Naruto's attention for a moment, but the boy put it in the back of his head as he arrived at his destination.

Naruto walked into the establishment "Hey Teuchi oji-san! Get me five bowls of Miso ramen."

A voice next to Naruto spoke "Get me the same as him but make my order a pork ramen." Naruto looked to his side and saw a fat kid with pink swirls on his cheek sitting next to a black haired boy with his hair tied up in a spiky pony-tail. "Hey, my name is Akimichi Choji. You're in our class right? Uzumaki Naruto?" Naruto nodded.

"Your orders will be ready in a few minutes," said Teuchi before he turned to the pineapple haired boy "Would you like anything sir?" Choji and Naruto looked over to the black haired kid awaiting his answer.

The boy looked up and said "I'll take a shrimp ramen." Teuchi nodded and proceeded to cooking the five orders of Miso and beef along with the one order of shrimp. The pineapple haired boy looked over at the blond "Uzumaki Naruto… your name is troublesome." Naruto shot a glare at the boy and opened his mouth to retort, but before he could say anything the black haired kid spoke again. "You came up in our conversation when Choji and I were cloud gazing and your name made Choji think of ramen. In the end Choji got hungry and he already spent all of his money on snacks so now I have to pay for him, troublesome."

Choji looked sad for a moment "sorry about that Shikamaru, I promise to pay you back tomorrow."

Shikamaru sighed "don't worry about it. I already said I'd treat you."

"Okay, five orders of miso, five orders of pork and one order of shrimp," said Teuchi placing the orders in front of the boys. Choji and Naruto were drooling while Shikamaru just broke apart his chopsticks and started eating.

The other two boys picked up their chopsticks and broke them apart, but Choji flinched in pain while Naruto was perfectly fine. "What's wrong?" the blond asked the Akimichi.

Choji looked at the boy closed his eyes and smiled "Oh it's just those cuts I got from shuriken practice today." The blond nodded before starting to slurp down his ramen and Choji did the same. In not time the two boys were on their third bowls.

Shikamaru however stopped eating when he noticed that the blond didn't flinch in pain and looked at Naruto or rather he looked at Naruto's hands. The pineapple haired boy noticed that they didn't have a scratch, but Shikamaru remembered clearly that the only ones that didn't receive an injury were himself, Sasuke, Shino, Tenten and Neji.

After Naruto finished his fifth bowl Shikamaru spoke up "Hey Naruto didn't you injure yourself in shuriken practice too?" The blond looked at Shikamaru while Choji looked at Naruto.

"Yeah that's right, I remember now you're the one that cut himself seven times in a row until Aoba-sensei helped you out on your first try at the targets," Choji said before drinking the broth of his final bowl of ramen.

The blond just smiled and showed the two boys his hands "I'm a fast healer," Skikamaru's eyebrow twitched "and are you going to finish that ramen, Shikamaru?" The boy just slid his bowl over to the blond. Naruto took the bowl and started to eat with great speed.

Suddenly a brown-haired girl with her hair in a ponytail walked into the restaurant. "Naru-chan, how was your first day at the Academy this year?" asked the girl.

"This year?" asked Shikamaru gaining the girl's attention.

Before the girl could say anything Naruto spoke up "Yeah this'll be my third year at the Academy," said the blond in a sad tone while looking down. Then the blond looked up and gave a big smile with his eyes closed and said in a happy voice "and my first day was awesome Ayame nee-chan; I got to use real shuriken, dattebayo."

Teuchi entered the conversation "Hold on, did you say real shuriken?" the three boys nodded and Teuchi narrowed his eyes "You kids weren't supposed to start using real shuriken until the second half of your second year. What are those academy instructors thinking?" Teuchi decided that he would have a word with the instructors about this.

Naruto put some money on the counter to pay for his meal "Thanks for the meal Teuchi Oji-san." The blond then turned to Shikamaru and Choji "See you guys at the Academy tomorrow, dattebayo." the blond said before getting out of his seat to leave the ramen stand.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto decided to walk around the village for a while until he heard loud thuds coming from a nearby empty lot. The boy decided to investigate and saw a brown haired girl, Tenten if he remembered correctly" throwing old looking shuriken at a man shaped target crudely painted on the wooden fence. The girl was too focused on throwing her shuriken that she didn't notice Naruto watching her for the next hour.

Naruto was impressed that this girl was training so hard and this inspired the boy to take his training more seriously from now on. Tenten was now lying on the ground with her limbs stretched out, panting hard. Naruto decided to walk up to the girl "that was really cool."

Tenten sat up "hmm you're that kid from my class. What was your name again?"

The blond picked up a stray shuriken and held his head up high with a big grin on his face "Uzumaki Naruto, the future hokage, dattebayo." said the boy as he threw the shuriken at the crudely painted man. With a thud the shuriken embedded itself into the throat of the target.

"Wow you're really good; it took me weeks to be able to hit the target that easily. Do you want to train together sometime?" Tenten said as she felt a small burst of Killing Intent hit her for a second. Tenten looked around and saw a small blue-haired figure quickly duck behind a fence.

The blond was about to agree before he remembered that he was supposed to meet Danzo every day after school and in the morning of every weekend. "Sorry, I wish I could, but my weeks are kind of busy. If I can get enough free time then we can train together," the blond stated and while Tenten was a little disappointed she nodded. "However today I'm free so we can train together all we want," the blond said with a grin.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Danzo sat in his office watching Naruto through his crystal ball. The man was slightly displeased that the boy was forming what could develop into strong friendships with other children because of his past experience with Kushina and Minato. This was why Danzo made it so that the boy would come to him right after school and every morning on the weekends. Danzo sat back in his seat and debated with himself whether or not to let the boy form bonds. After a while Danzo decided that it was okay since he would still spend more time with the boy than anybody else and he couldn't risk the boy getting suspicious by going out of his way to destroy the friendships he tries to forge. "_That girl was an orphan just like Kushina's brat. Maybe I should find out who her parents are so I can use the same method I used on Naruto to bring her under my thumb. After all she did show promise with those shuriken._" Danzo thought to himself.

"Danzo-sama," said the voice of a silver haired ROOT as he walked into his office with a big eared man that looked to be in his late 30's or early 40's that sported a small mustache.

Danzo looked up at the ROOT officer and the man "Agari Kaisen of the Kedoin clan," Danzo said with a smirk.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Next Day

Aoba stood in front of his class feeling sore all over from his training yesterday. Kotetsu and Izumo stood on both sides of him while Aoba took role. After the man took role, several of the students raised their hands. Aoba began calling on them and one at a time they gave Aoba notes from their parents saying that they are going to withdraw from the ninja program and re-enroll next year. Aoba collected the notes and a total of 16 students left the classroom permanently.

"_This must be about the shuriken practice_ _yesterday. I knew it was a bad idea; now we've got an unbalanced number of students, but at least this number is more manageable, hell it'll be a breeze for the three of us to handle,_" thought Izumo as the students left. The reason that Aoba had two assistants if you haven't guessed it by now was due to the large number of students that he was assigned. This doesn't mean that Aoba will lose one of his assistants now that the number of students has lowered in number though. The only ways you can be reassigned from an ongoing chunin instructor job is if you get promoted or there is a war so these three instructors will continue to watch over the remaining 38 students together.

"Okay class since we didn't get to do sparring or strength building yesterday we will do those first and from now on shuriken practice will be done with blunted metal shuriken until the second half of this year," stated Aoba remembering all the angry parents along with a certain ramen stand owner that swarmed him last night after his training with the ROOT.

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End

**I pretty much used this chapter to practice writing character interactions and didn't write as much of the main plot as I planned to. **

**So do you readers think I should start the next chapter from where I left off or do a 1 year later time skip?**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm a bit guilty of looking at the Naruto wiki to pick out some characters for the Academy students, sorry I just don't like having to resort to OC's unless absolutely necessary. I know it might seem unnecessary, but I needed to pick out a few more characters anyway since I plan to use more than the cannon Konoha twelve. I'm saying this now; there will be character deaths in the future. It can be members of the Konoha twelve or it could be a character I pulled up off the wiki, you won't know until it happens.**

**Note: since no one answered my question, I'm not doing the time skip this chapter.**

**Chapter 4**

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The class divided into three groups as the three instructors taught the children the Academy taijutsu style. Naruto and Tenten were in Aoba's batch, one of the two larger groups, along with eleven other students that consisted of Sasuke, Yagura, Sakura, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Ami, Fuki, Kasumi, Tobio, and Lee. Naruto watched Aoba closely to make sure he got the style down, since the boy has come to respect Aoba. "Okay that's the basic Academy stance. Now I want all of you to practice this style for an hour before we start sparing," said Aoba.

"Hai, Sensei!" the students shouted and Aoba watched the class practice the style to help correct any flaws they make.

After an hour, Aoba got up and instructed his students to stand on the sidelines of a nearby sparring ring. Aoba looked at a clip board and called out two names "Uzumaki Naruto vs. Rock Lee." Naruto stepped into the arena; Naruto was dressed in a white T-shirt with a red swirl on the front and dark blue pants. Lee, a boy with circular eyes and fuzzy eyebrows, wore a white Chinese style shirt and pants with his black hair tied in a long pony tail followed the blond into the arena.

"Go Naruto!" screamed Tenten from the sidelines gaining the attention of the entire group along with a small blue haired girl in Izumo's group.

The Uzumaki smiled at Tenten's encouragement "Prepare to go down, there's no way I'm losing to anyone dattebayo!" shouted the blond making Lee flinch. "_This guy is really jumpy_," thought the blond as he shifted into his taijutsu stance. Lee just stood there as Aoba signaled the start of the match. Naruto ran forward and Lee quickly put up a guard. Naruto shot one kick to Lee's side that the black haired kid blocked before the blond quickly followed up with another kick that successfully hit Lee in the side. Lee clutched his side and dropped to his knees as Aoba called the match in Naruto's favor.

"Hn, pathetic," said Uchiha Sasuke as Yagura and all the female audience besides Tenten nodded in agreement. Lee looked downwards in shame until a tan hand reached out in front of him causing the boy to look up at Naruto smiling at him waiting for Lee to grab hold. Lee grabbed the boy's hand before Naruto pulled him up and the blond turned to gaze at the Uchiha.

"Hey!" shouted Naruto as Sasuke looked at the blond. "Who do you think you are to call him pathetic? It was his first taijutsu spar teme!" Naruto shouted as he walked toward the uchiha and grabbed the scruff of his shirt before Sasuke did the same thing to the blond. Aoba rushed over and broke the two of them up.

"Who do you think YOU are to talk to Sasuke-kun like that!" shouted the collective voices of all the girls besides Tenten. The bun-haired girl glared at her fellow females in scorn. Naruto stuck out his tongue at the girls and pulled down the bottom of his eye with a finger at the girls. The girls grew tic marks on their heads.

Yagura looked at the blond "why defend that loser?" Yagura asked gaining the attention of the blond. Aoba was about to stop it before is escalated further, but he was interrupted by Yagura who spoke again. "You said it was his first Taijutsu spar, but is it not yours as well?"

"This is his third year so I'm guessing he's done this before," informed Choji.

Shikamaru looked at his friend "Choji!" shouted the pineapple haired boy causing the Akimichi to quickly cover his mouth with both hands. However the damage was already done and the other kids started to laugh at Naruto.

"Wow you must really suck then," said Tobio as he clutched his stomach.

"You're more of a loser than he is," said Yagura in an even and uncaring voice.

"No wonder you defended him, I bet he reminded you of yourself," said Ami while Kasumi and Fuki were laughing too hard to say anything.

"What a loser!" Sakura and Ino screamed out.

"Hn, dobe," stated Sasuke and soon everyone started calling the Uzumaki a dobe besides Shikamaru, Lee, Tenten and an apologetic looking Choji. Aoba stopped the children's taunting and called for the next two students to spar after the kids settled down. Aoba was cursing himself mentally for not ending it sooner.

By the end of the school day nearly everyone in class started calling Naruto, dobe.

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Danzo was in a meeting with the Hokage and the elder council. "Now I believe this concludes this meeting," said Hiruzen as he started to put away the documents.

Danzo suddenly spoke up "It has recently come to my attention that the latest batch of genin hopefuls has an uneven number of students due to a large number of them withdrawing from the program earlier this morning. I propose that one of my wards enroll in the Academy to keep the number even." Hiruzen glared at Danzo under the assumption that this is a ploy to get to Naruto through one of his 'wards'. It sounded like something the man would do; for years Danzo has tried and failed to induct Naruto into his ROOT program. A few months ago, Hiruzen forced Danzo to shut down the program and according to him; all ROOT activities have been permanently halted.

Hiruzen expelled a puff of smoke from his pipe "_Even after his ROOT is gone he's still after the Uzumaki sealing. I promised Minato and Kushina that Naruto would never fall under Danzo's command," _thought the Sarutobi angrily. "I apologize, Danzo, but all three of your wards are only six years old and too young to enroll in the academy. They'll have to wait until next year." Hiruzen looked at Danzo expecting to see a frown or some physical form of displeasure, but he was surprised to see him smiling "_When Danzo smiles, puppies die. This can't be good,_" thought the hokage as Homura and Koharu were waiting for Danzo to speak.

"Hiruzen didn't you push for the Uzumaki to be enrolled at age five? You're not playing favorites are you?" spoke Danzo with the smile still on his face. The council looked at Hiruzen waiting for him to respond while Danzo spoke again "I assure you that my ward is perfectly capable of keeping up with the older children."

Sarutobi clenched his teeth and pounded his fist on the desk. He looked up to see the Council frowning at him. "_Great, now there's no way I can deny Danzo's request. I'll just have to up Naruto-kun's ANBU patrol until his final year at the Academy._" Hiruzen looked at Danzo and sighed "Fine. Your ward will enroll in Yamashiro-san's class at the Academy." Danzo nodded. "Now I officially adjourn this meeting." Danzo left to go back to return to his office.

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Danzo walked into his office and saw Danzo looking at his crystal ball. Danzo looked up from the ball to stare at 'Danzo' and spoke "Did they suspect anything?"

'Danzo' disappeared in a plume of smoke and was replaced by Agari Kaisen "No Danzo-sama they were all unaware that you were never there." Danzo smirked at this. "Was my demonstration of the skills of the Kedoin clan to your liking? Our clan may only have two members now, but we shall serve you to the best of our abilities" asked Kaisen as he bowed before Danzo.

Danzo was impressed "Those three have known me since I was the same age as Naruto. The Kedoin clan truly is amazing to have transformations so good that not even family members could tell the difference between the real and the fake," said Danzo as he motioned Kaisen to rise "So, did Hiruzen agree to enroll Sai?" Kaisen nodded and Danzo smirked "_Perfect now Hiruzen will be too worried that I'm trying to get to Naruto through Sai to come up with the conclusion that I already have him,_" Danzo thought as he glanced at Kaisen "_with Kaisen I'll be able to create a decoy Naruto for when he's training with me. Also in the unlikely event that I need a stand in for myself I also have the services of Kaisen's brother, Kazan of 1000 faces._" Danzo never intended to use Sai in his plan during the planning stages of how to train Naruto without Hiruzen being prepared. This idea just hit him earlier that morning when one of his ROOT informed him that Aoba's class became uneven and he did want to test the abilities of the Kedoin clan.

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Later that day behind the Hokage monument

Naruto just reached there at 5:00pm on the dot and heard a voice whisper to him through the bushes. The blond investigated and was pulled into the bushes by a strange force. The ANBU watching Naruto were about to investigate, but the blond quickly climbed out of the bush and dusted himself off before walking away. "Weasel, use your sharingan. That was a strange occurrence; we need to make sure that's still Naruto," spoke a dragon masked ANBU.

Weasel nodded and looked at the blond with his Sharingan and saw that there wasn't anything strange. His chakra signature, muscle structure and the way the boy moved were all normal. Weasel deactivated the sharingan "all green." Dragon nodded before the two continued to follow the blond.

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Naruto was in a very dark place with only one source of light. The boy had no idea how he got there, but he decided to follow the light until he found himself in a large room housing several scrolls. "Ahh you must be Naruto-kun," said a silver haired teen wearing a mask that was sitting down while reading a scroll.

Naruto got in a defensive stance "Who are you?" asked the blond cautiously. The masked teen laughed causing the blond to get irritated "I said who the HELL are you?"

The masked man tried to stifle his laughter "Sorry about that Danzo-sama did say you were a bit cautious, but where are my manners my name is…" The masked boy removed his mask revealing a boy with onyx black eyes wearing circular glasses "… Yakushi Kabuto," said the silver haired boy.

"Danzo-sama?" asked the blond.

"Yes, I live to serve Danzo-sama and today Danzo-sama instructed me to give you this scroll," said Kabuto handing Naruto the scroll. The blond looks at the scroll "Danzo-sama says that your training will become that much easier once you master the jutsu in that scroll and I'm instructed to help you learn it."

"Shadow clone Jutsu?" said the blond as he looked at the scroll. Naruto was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to do this jutsu since he failed to do the normal clone jutsu. Kabuto put his hand on the younger boy's shoulder causing the blond to look up.

"Don't worry Naruto-kun we'll get this Jutsu down in no time"

**4 hours later~ **

"Yatta!" screamed Naruto as he was surrounded by ten shadow clones of himself.

"_Remarkable, I guess Danzo-sama was right about him after all. With such high levels of chakra he's able to master this Jutsu with little to no chakra control_," thought Kabuto as Naruto and his clones jumped around the room until they succumbed to tiredness. Kabuto sighed and picked up the blond and exited the hideout through the space-time seal that leads to behind the monument. Kabuto waited for a while until the Kaisen Naruto showed up. Both Kabuto and Kaisen disappeared into the bushes, leaving Naruto sleeping outside. Weasel showed up and took Naruto back to his apartment.

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End

**A/N: next chapter I'm going to get into Danzo actually start teaching Naruto Fuinjutsu and the chapter after that or in the middle of the next chapter I'll do the 1 year later time skip.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I swear this story writes itself, it's like some unknown force takes hold of me when I put my fingers on the keyboard. I don't even plan any of the Academy interactions, they just happen. Also I apologize for the plot hole I created last chapter, I forgot to look at my outline when I was naming off Danzo's conditions in chapter 2.**

**Chapter 5**

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One Week Later

Today Naruto had to face Sasuke in a spar. "Go Sasuke-kun! Kick that dobe's butt" shouted the voices of most of the female audience. Naruto stood there with his eyebrow twitching and half tempted to use the shadow clone jutsu to kick the Teme's ass to see the expression on everyone's face, but he promised that he wouldn't use any jutsu he learned from Danzo-sensei or his men.

"Go Naruto-san! Don't lose!" shouted Lee.

"Yeah, kick that teme's ass!" added Tenten.

Naruto smirked at his support "prepare to get your ass wuped, Uchiha!" shouted Naruto as Sasuke stood there with his eyes closed not even sparing the blond a glance. Naruto grew a tick mark "What's the matter too scared to say anything!?"

"Hn, weak dogs always bark the loudest," retorted the Uchiha as Naruto grew more tick marks. Aoba started the match and Naruto ran forward and threw a punch, but Sasuke ducked under it and gave the blond a jab to the stomach. Then the Uchiha turned around grabbed the Uzumaki's arm that was hanging in the air and threw the boy over his shoulder. Naruto landed on his back and rolled on his side. Before Naruto could do anything the black haired boy forced Naruto onto his stomach and put him in a hammerlock.

Aoba quickly called the match in Sasuke's favor and left the class and Aoba left the class alone because one of the other instructors were calling him over. The Uchiha stood up and looked down at the blond "I knew you weren't worth much," said the Uchiha as the other kids cheered for him.

Naruto laid there for a few seconds before getting to his knees and punching the dirt. "_Why… why damn it. Why was he able to beat me so easily? I've been training myself hard and yet I lose so easily._" 

"The ground is about the only thing the dobe can hit," stated Ami as all the other kids started laughing before Tenten slapped her. Ami held her cheek before screaming "Hey! What was that for!?"

"You insulted my friend!" shouted Tenten as Naruto wiped his head to Tenten when she said the word friend.

"You would be friends with the dobe?" Ami asked as if it was the most foreign thing she's ever heard.

"Don't call him that!" Tenten shouted.

"You're one of those orphan kids aren't you," interjected Sakura, gaining a hated look from Tenten that made Ami smile "If you had parents you would know that no one should be friends with that kid."

"What's wrong with him!" shouted Tenten in anger making Sakura flinch.

"Well for one he's a loser that had to repeat two years plus he's known around the village as a nuisance that pulls pranks all the time. And my Kaa-san and Tou-san say he's a monster that should never be trusted," said Sakura as Naruto got wide eyed. The boy stood up and ran to the fence around the training are before hoping over it and running off.

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Danzo looked at the scene through his crystal ball and for the first time in a long time the man felt a pang of sadness, but that feeling disappeared as quickly as it came. "_I've been watching the boy for far too long, it's starting to affect me,_" thought the man as he put the ball away.

Kabuto walked in the room "I was starting to worry about you Danzo-sama, that you were starting to make watching little boys your hobby," said the silver haired teen as Danzo glared at him.

Danzo sighed and thought "_It's a shame I didn't get him when he was young enough for me to mentally condition him_." "How goes the search for the identities of that Tenten girl's parents?" asked Danzo before Kabuto bowed.

"Danzo-sama we've searched the records of all the women that died in the Kyubi attack and we've found no one that could be her mother." Danzo raised an eyebrow. "We've taken Tenten's blood sample from the hospital along with all the women that died seven to eight years ago and no matches came up. We even had Kazan disguise himself as one of the Hokage's ANBU to check the more classified records, but still nothing."

"Interesting, it could be that her parents abandoned her or she may have been born outside of Konoha and brought here," said Danzo as he held his chin between his pointing finger and thumb. Danzo leaned back into his seat and looked up at the ceiling seeming to be pondering something. Then the man returned his gaze to Kabuto "First, find her earliest medical record then check the records of everyone that entered and left this village during that year." Kabuto nodded before shunshining away. "_You make interesting friends Naruto. Now I truly am curious who your little friend's parents are._"

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Tenten was running through the village looking for the blond boy. She searched Ichiraku's first since she heard from Choji and Shikamaru about how he liked ramen. When he wasn't there she checked the empty lot they first met at and after that she climbed at the top of a water tower to get a bird's eye view of the village. She looked down at the village to see no trace of the boy, but before she climbed down the brown haired girl saw a small figure sitting on top of the hokage monument. All she could make out was that it had blond hair which was good enough for her.

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Naruto was sitting on the head of the Yondaime gazing at the village with a sad expression until he heard a set of footsteps approaching him quickly. Naruto looked down from the monument to see Tenten running up the stairs. Naruto jumped down to the back of the monument "You should get back to class," said the blond.

Tenten put her hands on her knees and bent over "Not without you," said a panting Tenten.

Naruto looked at her before looking away "sorry, but I don't feel like going back to class today."

Tenten stood up straight and walked over to the blond "Fine, but if you're going to skip then so am I."

"Why did you follow me?"

"Because I'm your friend."

Naruto smiled and Tenten smiled back "Hey Naruto? Can we train together again?" asked the bun haired girl. Naruto nodded since he still had another five hours before he had to see Danzo-sensei and his training ever since he learned the shadow clone jutsu was just strength building and using shadow clones to memorize a code of conduct that Danzo-sensei gave him. The two of them left for a training field together

**4 and a half hours later**

Naruto and Tenten were punching training posts with rope tied around them; both of them were sweating hard and out of breath. Suddenly, with no warning Tenten's post exploded and the girl was sent backwards; Naruto moved fast enough to catch the girl, but the momentum of her flying body sent them both hurdling into a nearby tree. The blond grasped Tenten tightly and let out a grunt of pain when he collided with the tree before they both slid to the ground. Tenten was badly injured so the blond took her to the hospital.

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Konoha Hospital

The boy arrived at the hospital and as soon as one of the nurses saw the boy with the girl she took her from him and screamed "What did you do to her demon!?" before rushing to the emergency room with the girl in her arms.

Another nurse that saw the whole thing stepped forward "Get out demon, you've caused enough trouble. I'll be telling hokage-sama about this," said the nurse before she attempted to force the boy out of the hospital, but she stopped when someone grabbed her wrist. The woman looked to her side to see a boy that looked about fourteen with white hair tied back in a ponytail "Kabuto, let go of my wrist right now."

Kabuto let go of her and placed his hand on Naruto's back before guiding the young blond out of the hospital "Naruto-kun what happened? Danzo-sama sent me to look for you." Naruto explained to Kabuto what had happened between him and Tenten then how she got injured. Kabuto sighed "I see well then why don't you go home. You've missed the training session today so don't forget to show up early tomorrow since it is a weekend."

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Kabuto stood on the training field, in front of the destroyed training post. Kabuto inspected it for a good five minutes looking up and down it for any signs of an explosive tag, but found nothing. "_That's odd,_" Kabuto thought as he looked to see that all of the post's fragments were sent in one direction, the direction opposite of where Tenten's footprints were. "_It seems that it was the girl that caused the explosion. I should inform Danzo-sama_."

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Kabuto informed Danzo about everything. "_Figures that something would happen on the one day I decide to put away the crystal ball,_" thought the old war hawk. "Kabuto, from what you've described I think it's safe to assume that little Tenten has the explosion release Kekkai genkai meaning that she is of Iwa descent. I'm guessing that only one of her parents was from Iwa though since I don't see many features of the people from that country when I look at her. I want you to narrow your searches down to anything that involved Iwa." Kabuto nodded and the two went their separate ways to retire for the night.

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Next Day

Naruto stood in front of Danzo ready for his training, but still a little worried about Tenten. Naruto knew there was nothing he could do about it since those nurses wouldn't let him get back in the hospital to visit her. Naruto stood there thinking about Tenten until Danzo spoke "Now I believe you've had enough time to learn the code of conduct. We will move on to the next stage of your training, fuinjutsu." Naruto nodded as Danzo gave him a scroll.

Naruto read the scroll and was surprised by how simple fuinjutsu was "Danzo-sensei this looks really easy."

Danzo smiled "Fuinjutsu is known as one of the most difficult techniques to master. So difficult in fact that it was removed from the Academy curriculum. There were many students that injured themselves with faulty fuinjutsu seals" Naruto started to doubt himself and was about to say something, but Danzo held up his hand signaling him to be silent "However your mother found this art to be easy and mastered it in a few short months and I'm sure you will do the same. You are her son after all." Naruto nodded and made a shadow clone to read the scroll as the blond got started on his physical exercises.

After an a few hours, Naruto dispelled the clone and received its knowledge of the scroll. "Good now I want you to use the knowledge you've got to create a storage seal." Naruto nodded before he sat at a nearby desk with pen, ink and paper on it. Danzo watched as the boy worked on the seal. "_It always impresses me when Uzumaki draw seals. Even though his handwriting, if you could call it that, looks like chicken scratches; his fuinjutsu comes out too look impressive. If someone who was unaware of how easy an Uzumaki can learn this art looked at this boy's handwriting they would never teach this boy fuinjutsu out of fear of him blowing himself up. The talents of the Uzumaki should be classified as a kekkei genkai._"

Naruto finished the seal and tried to seal his pen into the seal, but it didn't work. The blond frowned and Danzo placed his hand on the boy's shoulder "Did you remember to encode your chakra into the ink while you were drawing the seal?" asked Danzo. Naruto scratched the back of his head and gave a nervous chuckle.

Naruto quickly did the seal over again and successfully sealed the pen into the paper, but couldn't get it back out. "Well this is harder than I thought, dattebayo," said the blond as Danzo pointed out that he forgot to add a few strokes that allowed access to the contents of the seal in his rush. Naruto scratched the top of his head with both hands vigorously and screamed. This reminded Danzo of when he first tried teaching Kushina fuinjutsu. The girl could draw the seals perfectly, but she'd always forget the little things that made the seal function properly.

Naruto looked at Danzo "hehehe can I have another pen, Danzo-sensei." Danzo sighed before taking out a brush he kept in his sleeve.

"Let me inspect the seal before you try it out, I don't want to lose that brush," said the man and Naruto nodded

Naruto finished another seal and shouted "Danzo-sensei I think I got it right this time," said the boy as he held the seal up for Danzo to inspect.

Danzo looked over the seal, inspecting it very carefully before the man nodded "Okay test it."

Naruto successfully sealed away the brush and unsealed it. "Yatta! This will be useful when I do my revenge pranking on the hospital for not letting me see Tenten," said the blond while rubbing his hands together and an evil aura shot out of him.

Danzo cleared his throat "I'm afraid that your pranking days must come to an end, Naruto. If you remember disturbing a hospital or any form of vandalism is prohibited in the code of conduct."

Naruto sighed "Yes, Danzo-sensei." Danzo nodded before Naruto spoke again "Uhh Danzo-sensei can you teach me some taijutsu moves? I don't want to lose against Sasuke-teme again when we have sparing sessions.

Danzo shook his head in negative "I apologize, Naruto, but I will leave your taijutsu training up to the academy." Naruto looked disappointed and started to sulk "However I can start your training in Kenjutsu, sword technique, today."

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End

Time skip starts next chapter.

I'm going to give Tenten and Shikamaru a wider variety of Jutsu in this fic and hope I get something interesting. I hope this decision doesn't turn you readers away from my story.

Now I know what you're thinking, 'NotailJinchuuriki if you wanted to give Tenten a kekkai genkai why didn't you give her magnet release?'

My answer to that is that I wanted to give Tenten a different fighting style, but she'll still use weapons. Maybe she'll use them in combination with explosion release or maybe she won't, I'm not telling.

In case anyone is curious, I will not have Tenten use clay constructs like Deidara.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I wanted to practice writing a mission so I decided, long ago, to use this chapter to practice this. I chose to make this one about the Kurama clan. Before I wrote this I decided to check out the Kurama clan arc since it's been over half a decade since the last time I saw it. It turned out that the events of the flashbacks seen in the Kurama clan arc happened within a year before Naruto graduated; the reason I thought differently was because of all the fanfics that have those events happen a lot sooner. So instead of putting this off until later I just said "Fuck it, I've got this thing planned out already so, I'm doing it anyway."**

**Chapter 6**

1 year later

It's been a little under a year since Naruto first started training under Danzo and his ROOT. Over that year the blond has mastered fuinjutsu to a level that surpassed Danzo himself and has invented a total of three seals. The first seal he invented, the Flash Seal, was made by complete accident when he attempted to create an explosive tag, but instead of an explosion it created a flash of light and a loud boom that temporarily blinded people along with disable their hearing for several hours. His second seal, the Lightning Seal, creates a strong current of electricity and can be used a number of ways; ROOT has come up with four different ways to use this seal: to place them on their standard issue tantos or other forms of metal weaponry, use them in combination with water style ninjutsu, place them on enemy shinobi to stun them and finally to place a bunch of them in enclosed areas to create a lightning barrier. The final seal, the Radio Seal, functions as a 2-way radio sending sound waves between two or more seals.

Danzo walked into a large room in his ROOT base with two masked figures behind him and gazed over the balcony. The man saw Naruto practicing his sword Katas inside the training area. The boy now wore a black zipperless hoodie with red lining and on the back of it was a red Uzumaki crest. His pants and shinobi sandals were just as black as his hoodie. Under the hoodie he wore a chainmail mesh shirt. On the boy's back was a black sheath for his sword that was now currently empty. "Naruto, come here I wish to speak with you." spoke Danzo and the blond sheathed his sword before jumping over to the balcony.

"Yes Danzo-sensei," said the blond as he stood in front of Danzo and his ROOT operatives. When Naruto first learned about Danzo's ROOT organization he didn't like it, he still doesn't, but after Danzo's teachings through the 'code of conduct' that was practically beaten into his skull over the past year; the boy has learned to accept the ROOT as necessary.

Danzo looked at the boy "I have a mission for you, Naruto." The boy raised an eyebrow since Danzo told him that he wouldn't be doing any work, outside of making seals, until he graduated the academy. "I know I've told you that you wouldn't be participating in any of my missions until after you graduate, but something urgent has come up," said Danzo as Naruto took on a serious expression. "Hiruzen plans to seal away the powers of the Kurama clan heir."

Naruto folded his arms and closed his eyes seemingly lost in thought "Kurama? That's that genjutsu clan right, the one that has been slowly weakening over the years and hasn't been able to produce any Jonin level shinobi for a while."

Danzo smiled "I see you've been keeping up with your studies of Konoha's clans." The blond smiled "Yes, you are correct. Their latest heir, Kurama Yakumo, has amazing talent in genjutsu and thanks to her kekkai genkai she could kill her opponents with genjutsu alone…"

Naruto got irritated and yelled out "Then why does the hokage want to seal that away? We don't have many genjutsu masters in Konoha and…" Danzo signaled the boy to stop with his hand and Naruto settled down.

"The reason that Hiruzen made this decision was because her kekkai genkai worked too well and has made her Id a living entity." Danzo stopped to let this piece of information sink into the blond before he continued "All of her wants, desires and impulses have formed into a separate consciousness, living inside the girl. Furthermore, her Id has already murdered the girl's parents. Her tutor, Yuhi-san, has received orders to seal away her genjutsu entirely to prevent her Id from harming anyone, but if she is successful it would make the girl along with her kekkai genkai useless"

Naruto nodded "I assume that you want me to use the 'Soul-Body Separation technique' to seal her Id away inside a scroll or tag." Danzo nodded and Naruto spoke again "Anything else I should know?"

Danzo motioned for his operatives to step forward and remove their masks. The first one was the very familiar face of Kabuto and the other was a bald man with a black goatee, he looked to be in his 30's. "First off you are not to participate in any combat or infiltration. You shall accompany Kabuto and Kazan in case they cannot remove Yakumo from the location and the sealing must be done there." Naruto nodded a little disappointed that he wouldn't be doing field work. "Kabuto, will also not be doing any combat or infiltration. He's going along because the girl has had a frail body since birth and his knowledge of medical ninjutsu will prove invaluable for her. As for Kazan, he is highly skilled in stealth and infiltration so, this is his mission is to capture the girl. Remember you two are only his backup in case something goes wrong during his mission or if he cannot move the girl away from the location and the sealing must be done there." Danzo handed Naruto one of his ROOT masks "Kazan is leading this mission and the three of you are to leave immediately," said Danzo as Naruto put on his mask before the three shinobi disappeared in shunshins.

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The three of them hopped through the trees towards a small villa, where the sealing ritual would take place in an hour. "So, you're Naruto I must say it's nice to finally meet you," said Kazan with a smile on his face as he jumped from branch to branch.

"Thanks… Kazan, was it. It's nice to meet another ROOT besides Kabuto that doesn't have their emotions extinguished," said Naruto as Kazan and Kabuto laughed.

"Okay we are nearing the villa so all idle conversations will cease from this point on," said Kazan with a serious face. Kabuto and Naruto nodded as they slowed down their pace, wary of any traps they may trigger.

The three of them managed to avoid all the trap triggers and landed on a branch that gave them a perfect view of the villa. It was dark out so they could not be seen thanks to the night sky in combination with their dark clothes and the cover of the tree leaves. The three of them waited until an ANBU officer passed under the tree.

Kazan silently jumped down and from a distance swung one of his Kusarigama horizontally at the officer's neck. The chain of his weapon wrapped around his neck three times before Kazan snatched it in the air and quickly jumped over a branch holding both ends of the Kusarigama. Kazan used the chain and branch like a rope and pulley system to pull the ANBU upwards. The ANBU held on to the chain with both hands, fighting and kicking until his body went limp before Kazan lowered the ANBU to the ground.

Kazan took the ANBU's body a safe distance away and hid him in some bushes. Kazan quickly returned to his two fellow operatives and disguised himself as the ANBU he just took out. "Okay, you two wait out here and only follow if I call you through the radio seal. If I don't return in thirty minutes, I want the both of you to return to Danzo-sama," said Kazan before he went inside the villa. Kazan walked down the hall and saw a female ANBU with purple hair.

"Boar, what are you doing in here? I just relieved you not even ten minutes ago." Since it was a large hallway with no doors and nobody else in sight 'Boar' just reached out and slapped a seal on her arm. Before the female ANBU could react she was electrocuted and while she was stunned 'Boar' gave her a swift chop to the back of her neck, knocking her out. Suddenly, he heard screaming coming from another room.

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"No Kurenai-sensei, please don't do this!" screamed a topless brown-haired girl strapped down to the ground in the middle of a large seal.

Kurenai stood behind the girl and looked down at her. "_Sorry Yakumo,_" Kurenai thought before lifting her hands to prepare the hand signs for the sealing ritual, but before she could complete the ritual a blinding flash and loud boom enveloped the area. Kurenai was now covering her eyes and didn't hear the footsteps of the fast approaching 'Boar' that gave her a swift chop to the back of the neck and knocked her out.

'Boar' untied Yakumo and covered her up before taking her outside.

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Naruto and Kabuto were waiting for Kazan to return until they saw the door to the villa open and out of it came the disguised Kazan with a brown haired girl slung over his shoulder. Kabuto sighed "guess he didn't need us after all," the silver haired teen said with a shrug before jumping down next to Kazan.

"Who are you people?" asked Yakumo before Kabuto gave her a sedative and put her to sleep.

Naruto jumped down and looked at Kazan "Do you have to be so awesome that you don't need any help? I was kind of hoping that you would screw something up and we'd have to come save your ass."

Kazan laughed "Can't help it I guess I was just born that way."

"I advise that we hurry back to the base before someone else shows up. We can save the chit-chat for later," said Kabuto as Kazan agreed and the three of the returned with Yakumo.

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Yakumo was lying down on a bed, unconscious. "Well done, Kazan," said Danzo before turning to Naruto "Do it," Danzo said to the blond.

Naruto held a scroll in front of him and screamed "Soul-Body Separation technique!" before a huge read seal appeared before him and a spirit flew out of Yakumo's body and into the scroll. The characters for 'Ido spirit' appeared on the scroll and Naruto handed it over to Danzo. "It should be fine, sealed off in there since it has no power without Yakumo," said the blond before Kabuto stepped forward and started an analysis jutsu.

"You can head back home, Naruto, the ninja academy will start back up tomorrow after all.

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End

Well I don't know how to feel about this chapter. Please review and tell me what you think. Be honest, if you think it was good say it's good; if you think its shit say its shit.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Well, I received a question from someone without an account so I'm going to have to answer it through an A/N.**

** Ryu-sama- I don't know crap about learning Kenjutsu and saw it as just another fighting style so, you bring up a good point. The reason I decided to let Danzo teach him kenjutsu and leave the taijutsu training to Aoba (since he needs something to train Naruto in) was because Danzo's taijutsu seems to rely heavily on the strength in his 'Hashirama arm'. Perhaps I should have let him start teaching Naruto some taijutsu anyway... oh well, too late for that now. I'll keep your comment in mind the next time I plan to make a fic that involves kenjutsu though. **

**Chapter 7**

The next morning, Naruto walked into Aoba's classroom with his hood up and hands in his front pockets. The students were chatting amongst themselves about little things, catching up with each other after the break. Naruto sighed and walked up to an empty seat next to Tenten. "Hey! You stay away from her!" shouted the voice of Tobio causing everyone to look at him and then Naruto. After the incident that landed Tenten in the hospital it has become a common belief that Naruto was the one to cause it, amongst both the adults and the children.

Naruto glared at the boy before Tenten spoke up "Hey leave us alone, Tobio," spoke Tenten. Even though Tenten still has no idea how the explosion occurred, she sticks by her friend and doesn't believe any of the rumors that people have been telling her about Naruto. Another popular belief by the village is that Naruto has the girl under some kind of spell.

Aoba and his assistant instructors walked into the room and saw the scene "Tobio, Naruto, Tenten; you three settle down before I have to send you all to detention." The three students took their seats with Naruto sitting next to Tenten and Tobio sitting in the seat above Naruto's. After all the students were settled and gave Aoba their attention the man spoke "Okay, first off I want to welcome you all back and I'm proud that each and every one of you made it to the second year. Now before I take role I've got an announcement," said Aoba making all the students pay closer attention to what he had to say. "I've been promoted to Jonin and I will retire from my position as your instructor after this year is over."

Naruto was disappointed that Aoba wouldn't be his chunin instructor after this year was over. The boy showed his disappointment by slouching with a sad face. He was the first teacher Naruto had that would treat him fairly. Aoba started calling role and had to call Naruto's name three times before Tenten elbowed his arm "here!" screamed out Naruto. Aoba nodded before checking him off.

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ROOT base

Danzo was sitting in his study looking over the reports from his various ROOT agents until Kabuto walked in. "Well it took all night but now Yakumo-chan should be able to train her body as long as she takes these special vitamins that I made just for her, every day," said Kabuto, shaking a bottle of vitamins in front of his face. Danzo nodded and stood up before he walked out the door with Kabuto following closely behind him.

"Where is the girl now?" asked Danzo as the two walked down the hallway.

"Why, little Yakumo-chan is with her 'fiance'" said Kabuto with a chuckle making Danzo stop, turned wide-eyed and stared at the silver haired teen. Kabuto wore an amused smile as Danzo gave him a look that said 'explain'. "Well Danzo-sama it all started when…"

**Flashback**

Yakumo's anesthesia had just worn off and the girl was coming to. Kazan stood over her bed side looking at her. "Where am I?" asked the girl as she sat up quickly before she gazed at Kazan and backed up into the wall "Who are you?"

"Oh you're up. Well I'm afraid I can't answer your questions due to security reasons," Kazan replied with a smile and Yakumo merely nodded before she took a careful look around the area. As if reading her mind Kazan spoke causing the young girl's head to dart back at him "As for how you got here, well I'm the one that brought you here from the villa an-"

Yakumo hugged the man "You're the one that saved me? Thankyouthankyouthankyou. I was so scared," Yakumo was sobbing at the end of her speech. The two of them didn't notice the door open. Kazan gave her a gentle hug to try and comfort the small girl before she blushed and spoke again "You saw my chest." Kazan was now a little nervous, not knowing how to respond to that, but he nodded without thinking. "Kaa-san said that the only man I should ever show my chest to is my husband." Yakumo closed her eyes before screaming out "will you take responsibility"

Kazan was about to speak, but went silent when he noticed that the door was open and a white haired teen stood there shocked "I didn't hear anything. I apologize for disturbing you Kazan-senpai," said Kabuto plainly as he started to close the door.

"Hey wait! It's not what it looks like!" screamed the Kedoin with his hand out and Yakumo still latching on to him before Kabuto shut the door. Kazan put his head down in depression fearing that Kabuto got the wrong idea of him and will start spreading gossip.

"What's wrong Kazan-kun?" asked the Kurama before Kazan put his hands on his head and started rubbing his scalp vigorously in frustration then let out a roar.

**Flashback end**

"And that's the story," said Kabuto while Danzo sighed. Kabuto was actually standing outside their door, listening in on their conversation, before and after he walked in. Danzo got in a thinking pose while Kabuto looked at the man.

"_It seems to be a case of Hero worship," _thought the man before he nodded to himself"Perhaps we can use this to our advantage," said Danzo making Kabuto gain a shocked look. "We will have Kazan adopt the girl under the guise of a recently deceased shinobi my ROOT have informed me of."

Kaabuto just stood there, looking a little confused before replying "Yes Lord Danzo." Danzo started walking again and Kabuto followed. The two were right outside the door to the room that occupied Kazan and Yakumo.

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Kazan and Yakumo were sitting on the bed "…And that's why we cannot be married. Do you understand?" said Kazan as he informed the seven year old.

The girl nodded "Hai, pedo-Oji-san," said Yakumo with a smile before Kazan put down his head and cried anime tears. The door opened and the two saw Kabuto and Danzo walk in.

Danzo stopped right in front of the two "Yakumo, I assume that Kazan has already informed you of why you cannot be together," said the aged man before the girl nodded, a little frightened by the new arrival. "Now how would you feel about living with this man?" Danzo asked while motioning to Kazan

Yakumo looked at Kazan "Living with pedo-Oji-san? That sounds like a lot of fun. He's really funny," said Yakumo while Kazan became nervous at the words 'pedo-Oji-san' while Kabuto chuckled.

"Good, Kazan your next mission is that you will leave this village with Yakumo. From there you will return with her under the identity of Toriichi Kumade, a recently deceased shinobi that fell in the field yesterday on a solo mission, my ROOT will guide you to his body once you leave as well as give you his personal information. After you return I want you to tell the Hokage that you rescued this girl from some enemy shinobi after they performed a sealing ritual on her and you wish to adopt her. Then you will request that she join the academy. This will be a long term mission," said Danzo waiting for a reply.

"Hai, Danzo-sama!"

Danzo nodded and closed his eye "Good your mission will begin tomorrow, until then you two will get used to each other," said Danzo before he turned and left together with Kabuto.

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Naruto and the rest of the class stood outside in the woods with their three sensei standing in front of them. Naruto assumed that they were going to do a survival training exercise like the few they did in the second half of their first year. "Okay class today we will do the tree climbing exercise," said Aoba while Kotetsu and Izumo looked at the man like he grew a second head.

"Hey, that's a genin level exercise and their only in their second year of the academy," said Kotetsu.

"Yeah, have you gone insane Aoba this is just like the shuriken, the survival training and the kunai balancing incidents all over again," added Izumo while Kotetsu nodded. Many of the students looked excited that they would be doing a genin level exercise while a few of them were a bit nervous, namely Lee, Choji and Hinata.

Aoba ignored his two assistants "Okay, for this exercise, you must first focus your chakra to the soles of your feet," Aoba said as he made the ram hand sign. The students watched him as he walked over to the tree put his foot on it then start to walk up upwards, vertically, on the side of the tree. After Aoba reached the top he jumped back down to the ground. "This exercise will improve your chakra control along with your chakra capacity." Aoba threw three kunai at the ground "you will take turns doing this exercise three at a time and mark your progress with those kunai. If one of you should fall from a high location then one of us instructors will catch you."

"_I'm starting to think they promoted him just so he'd stop pushing the students so hard_," thought Kotetsu as Izumo was thinking something along the same lines. Kotetsu let out a sigh "_Well at least them going three at a time means that each of us has only one to watch_."

Aoba looked at his role sheet "Shimura Sai, Uzumaki Naruto and Nara Shikamaru," stated Aoba and the three academy students stepped forward. Naruto made the ram sign and ran at a tree. The boy was able to run up it easily without any problems before he reached the top and back flipped back to the ground.

Kotetsu and Izumo along with the rest of the students were shocked that the Uzumaki got it right on his first try. Aoba merely looked at Naruto "_According to Danzo, Naruto has mastered Fuinjutsu to a level that exceeds his own. Fuinjutsu takes some chakra control in order to encode your chakra into the ink; it looks like the so called 'dobe' has steadily been improving his chakra control,_" thought Aoba before he was interrupted from his thoughts when he saw Sai and Shikamaru walking up the side of two other trees. Sai had a calm expression while Shikamaru looked like he was trying hard not to lose control and fall back down. "_Sai must have already learned this exercise from Danzo, but the expression on Shikamaru's face tells me this is his first time doing it._" Aoba sighed. "_Well he did always have good chakra control; he managed to get the Kunai balancing exercise right on the first try as well._"

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Danzo and Kabuto were walking down a hallway "Danzo-sama, I apologize for questioning you, but what exactly is the point of Kazan adopting Yakumo-chan and I assumed that you planned to put the girl through your ROOT program instead of enrolling her in the academy?"

Danzo stopped and turned to Kabuto. If any other one of his subordinates asked this question Danzo would have punished them, but Kabuto was the one that Danzo hoped would succeed him one day so the man calmly answered "It's because of her Kekkei genkai. Her Id manifested itself because of all the negative feelings the girl was feeling. If I were to put her through the ROOT program there is a chance that something similar will happen again. The reason I had Kazan adopt her is because the girl had shown a form of attachment to him due to the fact that he was the one that saved her from getting her genjutsu sealed away. If she is together with him it lowers the chance of any negative emotions developing. Do you understand now?"

Kabuto just nodded "_It sounds like a reason similar to the one Danzo-sama has for not putting Naruto-kun through the emotional conditioning,"_ thought Kabuto as he remembered when Danzo told him that Jinchurikis need emotions in order to use their biju and the removal of them would only serve to weaken the Jinchuriki. Then there was the fact that the Hokage would go through any lengths to ensure that nothing terrible happened to Naruto. "Hai, Danzo-sama," said Kabuto when he realized that he let himself stay in his thoughts a little too long.

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"Brother, this is not what I had in mind when I said we should try and restore our clan," said Kaisen in a joking manner while he looked at his younger brother being held from behind by an affectionate seven year old girl.

"You're pedo-oji-san's brother?" asked Yakumo making Kazan flinch.

"Pedo… oji-san?" asked Kaisen with a shocked expression.

"Me and pedo-oji-san will be living together starting tomorrow," said Yakumo making Kazan sweat.

Kaisen looked very disappointed "Kazan, where did we go wrong with you?"

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The sparing groups rotated every month in three groups of thirteen and an instructor for each group. This month Naruto was in Aoba's group, which he always ended up in for some reason unknown to the blond, with Neji, Lee, Kiba, Shino, Choji, Tobio, Yagura, Hinata, Sai, Sasuke, Sakura and Ino.

"Akimichi Choji vs Uchiha Sasuke," said Aoba as Sasuke walked into the ring with confidence as Sakura, ino and Yagura, his best friend, cheered him on. Choji walked into the ring meekly with very little confidence. Sasuke smirked as Aoba said "begin." Sasuke ran forward and punched the Akimichi in the solar plexus. Choji rolled backwards and landed outside of the ring.

"Hn, for an heir of a noble clan you sure are pathetic when that Nara kid isn't around," said Sasuke before Aoba scolded the boy. Choji clenched his fist before slowly getting up and walking back to the sidelines.

"Hey don't talk about Choji like that!" screamed Naruto before he walked over to the Uchiha and grabbed the scruff of his shirt before Sasuke grabbed his. This has become a common scene now and like always Aoba quickly separated the two. Sasuke went to stand next to Yagura while Naruto went to Choji. Naruto placed his hand on Choji's shoulder before speaking "Don't let anything that teme says get to you."

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Unknown to both the students and the instructors a pair of Jonin watched the whole scene unfold from inside the Academy. "Kakashi, my noble rival, that young Akimichi is in need of a little rekindling of his flames of youth," said a man with huge eyebrows wearing a green jumpsuit.

Kakashi looked at him for a bit then he looked at the Uchiha "_Uchiha Sasuke… he reminds me of myself in my younger days,_" thought the one eyed shinobi before taking out an orange book and started reading it while walking away.

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"Next match Hyuuga Hinata vs Yagura," said Aoba as Hinata and Yagura entered the ring. After Aoba started the match Yagura dashed forward and ended it with a swift chop to the back of her neck.

Neji watched the match and frowned "_Pathetic, why must it be my destiny to serve such a weak clan heir_," thought the male Hyuuga.

"Hyuuga Neji vs Shimura Sai"

The two stepped into the ring and as soon as the match started both of them went dashing at the other. Sai threw a punch, but Neji blocked and threw a kick at the black haired boy. Sai dodged and caught the leg at the Popliteal Fossa. Neji somehow managed to break free of the hold by rotating his body in an angle that allowed him to kick Sai's head. Neji fell on the ground and Sai stumbled back a few steps before Neji got up and threw a palm at Sai's chin. Sai dodged to the side and swiftly moved behind the Hyuga and put him in a head lock. Neji activated the byakugan as Sai's grip increased and shot a few Juken strikes at Sai's arm causing the boy to let go. Sai quickly rushed forward, jumped up and brought a heel down at Neji who dodged. Neji threw a Juken blow at Sai, but the boy redirected it by hitting Neji's wrist with an open palm. Sai quickly grabbed the wrist and put Neji in an arm lock before Aoba called the match in Sai's favor.

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Later that day

Naruto was standing in front of Danzo. "Today we will start your nature manipulation training," said the old war hawk as he handed Naruto a slip of paper. "First you must channel your chakra through this paper. If you have a fire affinity it will burn, a water affinity will cause it to get wet, lightning affinity will make the paper crinkle, wind affinity will make the paper divide down the middle and an earth affinity will make it crumble to dust." Naurto nodded before channeling his chakra through the paper and it cut in half. "Well it seems you have wind affinity like myself."

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End

I was originally going to make Yakumo view Kazan as a father figure from the beginning, but this story has a mind of its own and decided to change it.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: over 3200 views, 23 reviews, 29 favs and 39 followers. Thank you everyone that contributed to these numbers. **

**On another note, I'm assuming everyone is familiar with the leaf cutting exercise so, I'm going to skip the training for that and let it happen off-screen since it serves no purpose other than giving my fic more words.**

**A large chunk of today's chapter will be about Kazan and Yakumo.**

**Chapter 8**

The next morning after Yakumo took her vitamins, Kazan and Yakumo left the hidden leaf village through the secret network of tunnels owned by Danzo. The tunnels led out near the land of waves and upon reemerging two ROOT officers showed up. "I am Hyo and this is my partner Terai we are tasked to bring you to the land of water."

"Land of water?" asked Yakumo.

Kazan sighed "looks like we have quite the journey ahead of us if…"

Hyo interrupted Kazan "The journey to land of water will take no time at all." Kazan looked confused; he knew that Water country was located across the sea and it would take at least three days to get there if they traveled by ship. "Danzo-sama has a space-time seal located nearby for fast travel to water country."

Kazan was surprised and then irritated "If Danzo-sama could make seals like that then why didn't he make the seal start from the base?"

"You must not know much about space-time seals," said Terai gaining Kazan's attention. "Space-time seals do in fact have a range. The maximum range that the seal allows is the distance from wave country to water country."

"Then why didn't he just make a seal to travel from Konoha to here?" asked Kazan still a little irritated.

"Well that's because he doesn't want to risk someone stumbling upon the seal and getting into the ROOT main base. Danzo-sama is a very cautious man," Hyo answered coolly.

"Then why does he have that seal that allows Naruto travel to him everyday behind the hokage monument? Couldn't someone stumble upon that one?" spat out Kazan not satisfied that he was losing this argument.

"Your knowledge of seals is incredibly lacking Kazan-san? Danzo-sama, Kabuto, Kaisen and even Naruto all have the ability to turn that seal on and off whenever they please. The reason that we don't do the same with the space-time seals we have out in the field is because we don't have enough fuinjutsu users to go around maintaining them," said Terai evenly as Kazan grew more frustrated.

Kazan smiled "Then couldn't someone just go through those tunnels and get back to the main base," said Kazan thinking before letting out a victorious laughter with his hands on his hips.

"But pedo-oji-san, those tunnels didn't start at Danzo-san's base and when we were going through them I saw many of those fuinjutsu tags on the walls that I'm guessing are traps," said Yakumo as Kazan stopped laughing "Then we also needed a map to get to here because the tunnels were so confusing." Kazan opened his mouth to ask why couldn't Danzo have made a time-space seal in a different location in Konoha other than the base, but he soon realized that an enemy shinobi could stumble upon it and use it for quick access to the village. The man slouched and put his head down in defeat.

Ignoring the 'pedo-oji-san' comment both of the ROOT nodded "It would seem that this girl is smarter than you," said Terai making Yakumo smile and Kazan cry. The two ROOT started to walk away while Kazan just stood there until Yakumo pulled his sleeve and pointed at the two leaving ROOT. Kazan sighed and grabbed Yakumo's hand before following them.

The four of them soon arrived at the space time seal "Now before you two leave we have been instructed to rough Kazan up so that if Konoha decides to send an extraction team your story about rescuing Yakumo would be that much more believable," said Terai making Kazan gulp and nod before Hyo punched the man in the gut making him spit out blood. Kazan dropped to his knees before Terai kicked him in the face. Kazan fell over and soon both Terai and Hyo hit him with a barrage of attacks.

Yakumo looked away as Hyo and Terai beat on Kazan. "Kumade's belongings are in this scroll," said Hyo as he placed a storage scroll on Kazan's chest. "Inside of that scroll you will find information about his fighting style, his address along with his apartment key, information about his personal life, a description of his basic personality and a summoning contract that you will sign. If you're worried that the summons will not acknowledge you because you are stealing the identity of their former summoner, don't be because this particular animal clan doesn't hold any loyalty to any of their previous summoners and will accept anyone that summons them without question. Oh and I almost forgot you will have to take the long way back to Konoha." Kazan coughed up blood and nodded before the two ROOT shunshined away.

"Pedo-oji-san!" shouted Yakumo as she ran over to the now bleeding Kazan and helped him up causing the scroll to roll to his side.

Kazan sat up and coughed up a little blood before laughing a little "_I really wish she would stop calling me that_," thought the man before picking up the scroll and standing up. "Okay Yakumo-chan, let's go," Kazan said in a cheerful voice. Yakumo looked a little worried "Don't be scared Yakumo," he said before kneeling down and putting his hand on her shoulder.

Yakumo smiled and nodded "Hai, pedo-oji-san," the Kurama heir said making Kazan cry.

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The two of them walked through the seal and found themselves in an abandoned shack. Lying on a nearby bed was the corpse of a man with short grey hair with a mask covering the lower half of his face. Kazan went through some hand seals and screamed out "Transformation Jutsu!" in a poof of smoke Kazan was transformed into Kumade Toriichi.

Yakumo was very impressed with this transformation. Unlike other transformations the chakra around Kazan's transformation was not irregular and the transformation itself was solid instead of just a regular illusion. "Can you teach me how to do that sometime pedo-oji-san?" asked an excited Yakumo.

"_Hmm… well since my clan is dying out, it would be a good idea to pass on my clan's skills to someone. I could even teach her how to use the Kusarigama once she has some physical training_," thought Kazan before he smiled and said "Don't worry Yakumo-chan I'll be teaching you many things."

"Thank you, pedo-oji-san," said the girl with a smile as Kazan just realized what this would look like from a third person view and laughed. Yakumo was confused by his laughter.

"Yakumo-chan, since I'm going to be adopting you, you should stop calling me pedo-oji-san. Is that understood?" said the disguised Kazan.

Yakumo nodded "Okay tou-san," she said making Kazan blinked twice and was surprised that it was so easy to get her to stop. Kazan undid his transformation and opened the storage scroll. He picked up the summoning scroll lying on the ground together with the mess of other documents and bit his thumb. Kazan quickly signed his name in blood on the scroll before going through a few hand seals and slamming his hand on the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!" screamed the man as a puff of smoke appeared. Soon afterwards a small bear appeared. Kazan's eyebrow twitched and he grabbed one of the scrolls detailing Kumade's fighting style and started reading. "'Toriichi _Kumade, also known as Kuma no Kumade because of his bear summons. His main fighting style consisted of him fighting mid to long range with his Kusarigama and water style ninjutsu while his bear summonings fought at close range.' Well that's convenient that we used the same weapon, but I don't know any water-style ninjutsu; if only he was a fire-type like me._" Kazan sighed and was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard Yakumo giggling. Kazan turned to see Yakumo playing with the small bear and smiled at the sight.

Then the bear looked at Kazan and opened his mouth "So you are the new bear summoner?" asked the bear and Yakumo was surprised to hear an animal speak. "My name is Kumakoji and you are?"

"I am Kedoin Kazan also known as Kazan of 100 transformations," said Kazan as he transformed into Kumade.

Kumakoji's eye widened "amazing! You smell just like Kumade-san, I'll tell the boss about this and I look forward to working with you," said the bear before he poofed away.

Kazan had Yakumo stay inside while he took Kumade's body a safe distance away from the shack and burned it to ashes with a fire jutsu. With the body burned and ashes scattered, Kazan returned to Yakumo and the two of them left the shack together after Kazan transformed back into Kumade.

**(note: to make things easier I will be referring to Kazan as Kumade from this point on, until Kazan undoes the transformation or if he addresses himself as Kazan.)**

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Kumade and Yakumo were walking through water country being careful not to gain the attention of Kiri or any of its shinobi. When they reached a small snowy village that hosted some docks they suddenly heard a loud crashing noise coupled with screaming. Kumade wanted to avoid it, but his curiosity got the best of him and he decided to investigate. What he saw was a small wooden house with several ice spears sticking out of it. Kumade was going to avoid it by leaving, but when he reached for Yakumo he was surprised that the girl was not next to him. Kumade looked around for her until he saw Yakumo enter the shack.

Kumade ran forward and as he got closer he heard the faint sobbing of a small child.

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Kumade ran into the house and saw the bodies of several men pierced by ice spears. The man didn't even let this sight slow him down as he soon found Yakumo trying to comfort a young black haired child. "Hey kid," said Kumade making the kid and Yakumo look up.

Kumade saw the kid's face and that's when he realized what must have happened here "_This child must be a member of the Yuki clan, she or is it he certainly has the facial features. Since this is the land of water, where bloodline clans are hunted down and exterminated, I'm willing to bet these men tried to kill this child and the kid must have used his or her kekkei genkai in self defense._" Kumade thought remembering that the Yuki clan had the ice release Kekkei Genkai. "_Perhaps I can bring this kid back to Konoha, Danzo-sama would certainly be pleased if we can restart the Yuki clan in the leaf village."_

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In Konoha

"Hokage-sama is there any word about Yakumo yet?" asked the concerned Kurenai for the third day in a row.

The aged hokage took his pipe out of his mouth and looked up from his documents at the genjutsu mistress "I apologize Yuhi-san, but we still don't know who took the girl nor have we found any traces of where they may have taken her," said Hiruzen with a sad expression on his face. Kurenai walked out of the office and the hokage sighed regretting that he didn't send enough ANBU guards as well as his orders to have Kurenai attempt to seal away the girl's abilities.

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At the same time in the training area of Danzo's base

Naruto had managed to complete the leaf cutting exercise and showed Danzo the split leaf. Danzo nodded "Well done Naruto. Now I can begin teaching you Fuuton ninjutsu," said Danzo as he rested his cane against a wall and revealed his right arm, bandaged up with a huge golden bracelet latched on his wrist. Naruto was curious as to why he had such a thing. Danzo noticed him eyeing the bracelet "No Naruto, I'm not going to take my brace off today," making Naruto sigh in disappointment.

Danzo went through some hand seals and inhaled some air "Fuuton: Vacuum bullets!" Danzo yelled as several air bullets shot out of his mouth and tore through the training dummies. Naruto watched with amazement. Danzo motioned for the blond to try it out "the seals for this jutsu are Rat-Rabbit-Dog. After performing the hand seals you must inhale some air and use your fuuton chakra to shape it into marble sized spheres. Afterwards you spit them out one at a time using your wind chakra to give them a speed boost."

Naruto went through the seals Rat-Rabbit-Dog and inhaled some air. Afterwards he worked to reform the air into tiny little spheres, but he ended up making just one big sphere in his mouth. When Naruto tried spitting the sphere out he was forced to open his mouth up wide enough to hurt his jaw and the sphere immediately dispersed as soon as it left his mouth.

Kabuto appeared via shunshin and whispered something to Danzo. "Naruto, I want you to keep practicing that Jutsu until I get back," Danzo said before he left the room with Kabuto.

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In his study, Danzo was listening to a radio seal. "Danzo-sama this is Kazan reporting from Water country. I have successfully taken on the identity of Toriichi Kumade and was on my way to the docks in order to return to Konohagakure, but on my way I discovered a member of the Yuki clan. He says his name is Haku, he's nine years old, and he has already awoken his ice release kekkei genkai. What do you want me to do with him?"

Danzo smirked evilly thinking about what the ice release kekkei genkai could do for Konoha's military if he had the boy join the village. He thought briefly about adding the boy to his ranks in ROOT, but decided against it remembering the survival rate of his ROOT agents. "_I can't risk something as powerful and rare as the ice release being wasted. I'll let this boy rebuild his clan in Konoha; it'll benefit this village more if the Yuki become an official clan of Konohagakure._"

"Orders, Danzo-sama?" asked the voice of Kazan.

"You will bring this boy back to Konoha and adopt him along with the Kurama heir," said Danzo while Kabuto looked surprised at this.

"Hai, Danzo-sama!" said Kazan before the seal shut off.

"_Is Danzo-sama getting soft? First he doesn't condition Naruto-kun, he decides to leave that girl with explosion release alone for a year now, he gives Yakumo-chan an adoptive family and now he decides not to recruit someone with a powerful bloodline. Sure the reasons for Naruto-kun and Yakumo-chan make sense, but we've been recruiting bloodline users in ROOT for years now even sole survivors. Why the sudden change?"_ thought Kabuto as Danzo put the seal away.

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End

Just so you know I decided on giving the bear contract to Kazan long before I decided to make Yakumo call him 'pedo-oji-san'. Hell, I didn't even think of the pedo-bear meme until I started writing this chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Confession: it was not my original plan to make Haku join Konoha so soon. Original plan was for one of the Konoha teams to take on the Wave mission and one of the genin in that team gets themselves killed. Haku was to replace the dead one off-screen, but I found that idea too lazy so I hastily added Haku in the last chapter and rushed to figure out how Danzo would react to it without having to resort to ROOT. Now I'm going to promise myself to stop adding new things when writing.**

**Notes:**

**Time skipping to graduation because there isn't anything left for me to do in this time period unless I write Kazan's return, but that can be done through flashbacks later on in the fic if I feel up to it. **

**Yakumo and Haku enrolled in the year after Naruto so, it will be a while before they join the shinobi ranks.**

**I'm going to have most of my jutsu in English since I would have to wiki all the jutsu to find out what the jutsu in Japanese is called or double check to see if I got the spelling right. **

'**Fuuton: Vacuum Bullets' will be known as 'Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere' from now on. **

**Chapter 9**

Over the last few years, Naruto has mastered every wind-element Jutsu that Danzo has thrown at him and has been informed of the nine-tailed demon fox that has been lying dormant inside the seal on his abdomen. During the final year of training under Danzo the blond was allowed to learn Danzo's taijutsu style, after building up great strength in his arms thanks to a new seal Naruto invented.

The only new seals Naruto managed to invent in the past three to four years were the Weight Manipulation Seal and the Recording Seal. The Weight Manipulation Seal is actually two seals; the target seal is put on the item or person you want to change the weight of and the handler seal is placed on the user and gives him/her the ability to freely manipulate the weight of the target. However the changes in weight are only felt by the one with the handler seal and to everything else the target remains the same weight; the Weight Manipulation Seal takes an hour to place on both the target and the handler. The Recording Seal is a simple little seal that records sound waves and play them back.

After Aoba's promotion to Jonin, Izumo became the main Instructor with Kotetsu as his assistant. Right now Izumo and Kotetsu were sitting in a meeting with the Hokage and the Jonin that would be the sensei of the thirty-nine recently graduated genin. "Now are there any Jonin who wish to request any specific genin to join their squad?" asked the hokage looking over the list of fresh Academy graduates.

A total of five Jonin raised their hands and the hokage called upon the one to shoot his hand up the quickest. "Hokage-sama I would like to request Akimichi Choji-" this got the attention of a bearded Jonin "Hinata Hyuuga-" the mention of this name got the attention of Kurenai Yuhi "and Rock Lee. My plan is to create a youthful team of taijutsu specialists!" shouted a green clad man with extremely large eyebrows. The Hokage looked thoughtful.

Kotetsu spoke up "Hokage-sama, those three students have the lowest grades in term of taijutsu surely you're not conc-"

"Kotetsu, need I remind you that when a Jonin is requesting a team no one else is to speak," said Hiruzen, interrupting the chunin, in a serious tone before turning back to the green clad man. "Now, while it was wrong for him to interrupt, Kotetsu does bring up a good point they do have very low grades in taijutsu." The green clad man had a very serious expression on his face "However, I can see there is another reason you want this team and we can discuss that in private after this meeting, Gai." Gai nodded before calling on another shinobi.

The hokage picked Kakashi "I wish to request that Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Inuzuka Kiba all join my team." Kakashi's desired team made everyone question if the man even read the files that stated that the Uzumaki and Uchiha couldn't go a week without fighting each other.

The hokage sighed "I'm afraid I can't allow Naruto and Sasuke to be on the same team, but I will take your requests for Sasuke and Kiba into consideration." Kakashi nodded.

"My only requests are Shimura Sai and Hyuuga Hinata," said Yuhi Kurenai and the hokage nodded.

Sarutobi Asuma, Hiruzen's son, made his request next "I originally wanted to teach the next generation of the Ino-shika-cho, but I kind of like the idea of Gai's taijutsu team so instead I'd like to request that Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji all join my team."

Aoba was next and as he made his request Hiruzen's eyes widened.

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1 week later

Naruto was sitting in the classroom with the rest of the class. The blond now wore a black sleeveless hoodie with red lining with his hood down. Underneath the hoodie he wore a grey long sleeve shirt and under that was a chainmail mesh. He wore black pants with a crimson shuriken holster tied around his right leg. His belt had several small pouches that held several different types of fuinjutsu tags and scrolls. Around his arms and legs were black arm and shin guards and on his back was the the Uzumaki Clan crest in a crimson color. His sandals remained black.

**(Everyone else will have canon outfits for now.)**

Izumo and Kotetsu had just walked into the classroom with the former carrying a clipboard. Before Aoba retired from his position as chunin instructor three years ago nearly everyone in his class had mastered tree climbing and water walking. After their second year Naruto and many other students found the final three years of the Academy to be boring and uneventful. Izumo loudly cleared his throat "It has been a real honor to watch you all grow and graduate the Academy as Genin. Today we will start you on your duties by assigning all of you to three man squads with a jonin instructor," said Izumo and all of the students were surprised by this except for Naruto who was informed of this by Danzo. Izumo looked at the clipboard and started calling the squads "Squad 1: Hyuuga Hinata, Akimichi Choji and Rock Lee… Squa-" Izumo was interrupted as the Academy door flew off its hinges and hit the wall opposite of it passing in front of Izumo and Kotetsu with a powerful gust.

Izumo and the rest of the class looked to see a man with a bowl cut, dressed in green spandex and had freakishly large eyebrows standing in the doorway. "Maito Gai Sensei of Squad 1 here and ready for duty!" roared Gai before he gave a big grin and a sparkle appeared on his teeth. "Squad 1 we will begin our youthful time together with a light jog to training field one!" Gai sped off at an incredible speed and Hinata and Lee followed quickly as best they could. Choji looked at Shikamaru, sad that he wasn't going to be on the same squad as his best friend, before he followed behind Hinata and Lee.

Sasuke sighed "_I feel sorry for the Jonin. He seems so enthusiastic yet he winds up with three of the weakest genin in our year. One of them lacks the confidence to do anything, another has the determination but can only do some less than decent taijutsu and the final one is a coward when his little friend isn't around,_" thought Sasuke as most of the class was thinking something along the same lines.

Izumo cleared his throat again and continued "Squad 2….. Squad 7: Uchiha Sasuke…" as soon as that name was said all of the female students that weren't assigned squads perked up and hoped to be on the same squad as 'Sasuke-kun'. "Inuzuka Kiba and…" the girls were on the edge of their seats hoping that their names were called "Yagura." The collective female audience and Kiba face planted.

"_Damn it, why do I have to be in an all guy team,_" thought Kiba with his face plated on his desk while Sasuke and Yagura high fived.

Kotetsu started to snicker while Izumo smiled; both of them were waiting to see how the class would react to Sasuke being put on an all guy team since they first received the team assignments sheet. Izumo and Kotetsu settled down and continued "Squad 8: Shimura Sai, Tobio and Yamanaka Ino."

"_Well I may not have been put on the same squad as Sasuke-kun, but Sai is a close second_," thought Ino.

"Squad 10: Uzumaki Naruto…" Naruto and Tenten paid close attention when Naruto's name came up. "Tenten and Nara Shikamaru." Naruto and Tenten were glad that they were put on the same squad, but didn't know what to think about Shikamaru. To both of them Shikamaru was just a friend of a friend, Choji, and the Nara boy was a mystery.

"Squad 11: Ami, Fuki and Kasumi."

"Squad 13: Hyuuga Neji, Haruno Sakura and Aburame Shino. This concludes team assignments, now everyone is to wait here until your Jonin Instructors arrive."

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Thirty minutes later

The only teams that were left in the room were squads 7, 8, 10 and 13. Everyone was chatting with their new squads besides Shikamaru who was asleep and Sai, who never really did converse with anyone. Suddenly a familiar man with sunglasses walked through the doorless doorway, thanks to Gai. "Aoba-Sensei?" asked Naruto in a slightly happy voice.

"Aoba-sensei, what are you doing here? I thought you would have gotten a genin squad years ago," asked Sakura remembering the last day they had Aoba as an academy instructor when he told them his dream to have his own genin squad.

Aoba smiled "It's nice to see all of you all again and the reason I'm just now getting a squad is because Jonin need at least two years of field experience as Jonin before being able to qualify as a Jonin-sensei. You don't really expect Konoha to let a fresh Jonin handle a genin squad especially one who has been an academy instructor for the past few years, do you?" Aoba asked with a laugh.

"Aoba-sensei" said Naruto gaining Aoba's attention. "Are you by any chance squad 10's sensei?"

Aoba frowned and adjusted his sunglasses "Sorry Naruto. I'm not. I'm here for Squad 13."

"_So Aoba-sensei is going to be my Jonin-sensei? Just great, why did I have to end up with the instructor from hell?_" thought Sakura who still had some memories of how hard Aoba used to work them during their first two years of Academy.

"_With more training from Aoba-sensei I'll finally prove that I am the best in this class_," thought Neji before glaring at Sai. In all the taijutsu spars he's had with the other students, Sai was the only one that Neji never managed to beat.

Naruto was disappointed that Aoba wasn't going to be his Jonin instructor and watched Aoba leave with squad 13.

After squad 13 left, Sasuke spoke up "You didn't think that Aoba-sensei was going to waste his time teaching you again, dobe?"

"Teme," said Naruto before he grabbed the scruff of Sasuke's shirt and Sasuke grabbed Naruto's.

Sasuke smirked "This time Aoba-sensei isn't around to save you."

Naruto quickly balled his fist, raised his arm, pulled it back and just before he was about to punch someone grabbed him by the wrist. "Sorry, but if you two start a fight here we'll have to explain it to the Academy and the Uchiha clan why you two were fighting and that's just more trouble than it's worth," said a bearded man with a cigarette in his mouth. This scene caused Shikamaru to awaken. "Squad 10 follow me and we can get the introductions over with."

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Naruto, Shikamaru and Tenten followed the bearded man to a nearby empty classroom. "Okay, now let's get to know each other. Start off by saying your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies and your dreams for the future. I'll start," said the bearded Jonin before removing the cigarette from his mouth and flicking it away. "My name is Sarutobi Asuma. I like taijutsu, soba noodles and a certain someone. I dislike my old man and asparagus. My only hobby at the moment is playing shogi" as Asuma said that Shikamaru made a note in his mind to challenge him sometime. "And as for my dreams for the future" Asuma thought for a while before shrugging "Well my immediate dream is to make the three of you legendary shinobi that will make me famous."

"And what's your long term dream?" asked Tenten.

Asuma looked away for a second before speaking "Blond boy introduce yourself."

Naruto sighed "My name is Uzumaki Naruto; my likes are ramen, fuinjutsu, ninjutsu, training, my village and hanging out with Te- my friends whenever I can. I dislike those that would betray their village or anything that would serve to weaken Kohoha. My hobbies are training, studying fuinjutsu and practicing Kenjutsu. The only dream I have for the future is to make Konoha stronger." This surprised everyone present.

"A few years back didn't you say your dream was to become hokage?" asked Shikamaru.

"People change," said Naruto calmly.

Shikamru sighed "Troublesome."

"How come you never told me you practiced fuinjutsu?" asked Tenten slightly irritated that she didn't know Naruto as well as she thought.

"Oh sorry Tenten, I wanted to keep it a secret until after I graduated."

"You still could have told me."

"Okay Tenten you're next. Tell us your likes, dislikes, hobbies and plans for the future," said Asuma not wanting to have to hear the two go on any further.

Tenten looked forward "My name is Tenten. My likes are training, weapons and Chinese food. My dislikes are secrets," said Tenten as she turned to Naruto to give him a cold glare before she smiled and looked forward again "My hobby is fortune telling and my dream for the future is to become a medical-nin as great as Tsunade of the Sannin," finished Tenten as Naruto felt bad about making her angry.

Before Asuma spoke, Shikamaru already started his introduction "My name is Nara Shikamaru. I like gazing at clouds, hanging out with Choji and quiet places where I can nap. I dislike getting into fights and my hobbies are playing shogi against my old man and cloud gazing. My dream for the future is to live long enough to retire and find a nice wife," Shikamaru said before yawning.

Asuma scratched the back of his head "Okay tomorrow morning meet me at training ground 10 at noon and we'll do the real test to see if you have what it takes to be Shinobi."

"Real test?" asked Tenten

"Troublesome, I knew that Academy test was too easy," stated Shikamaru

"That's right and this test won't be as easy as that pen and paper one. Out of the thirty-nine students that graduated only nine of you will become shinobi."

Naruto, Tenten and Shikamaru's eyes all widened before they all spoke at the same time "Troublesome."

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End

I never intended to make Aoba Naruto's jonin sensei.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

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Nara Residence 9:00pm

Shikamaru and Shikaku were sitting on the ground playing shogi "Hey dad is it true that only nine of us can graduate?" asked Shikamaru as he moved a tile.

Shikaku looked up at his son before looking back down at the board "That is the number of students that usually becomes genin," said Shikaku with a sigh before moving a tile. Shikamaru made his next move "I heard that Choza's boy's team already passed and I'm sure you and your team will pass too," said Shikaku before he made his next move and called checkmate.

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Next morning at 10:30am, the genin of Squad 10 all gathered at training field 10. Shikamaru was already there for a half-hour while Naruto and Tenten just arrived. The sun rose from the end of the training field that had a large stone cliff wall and from there was a semi-circle shaped clearing surrounded by forestry. Within the clearing there were three training posts at the end of the semi-circle opposite of the stone wall which is where our three genin hopefuls were; Shikamaru was lying on his back, had his hands behind his head, and gazing at the clouds as Tenten and Naruto walked up to him.

"So, Shikamaru any idea what this test is going to be?" asked Tenten while she and Naruto looked at the boy making him sigh.

"Not sure what it could be, but I don't want to fail it. Going back to the Academy would be too troublesome especially since, Choji's team already passed," answered Shikamaru while Naruto and Tenten silently agreed. "What are you two doing here so early anyway?"

"We could ask you the same question," said Naruto making Shikamaru sit up and clean out his ear with his pinky.

"Well I couldn't find Choji this morning, so I decided to take a nap. Since I didn't want to oversleep and miss the session I figured I might as well take my nap here," said Shikamaru making Naruto and Tenten wonder if he was really serious about this test.

"Aren't you worried?" asked Tenten.

"Worrying when I don't know what this test will consist of is too troublesome. I'll worry when I find out exactly what we're in for."

Neither of them could argue with his logic so Naruto decided to answer Shikamaru's question "Well me and Tenten came here to scope out the training field before the test."

The young Nara remembered the conversation he had with his dad last night and got an idea of what this test might be. Shikamaru looked at the two and sighed "Well since you're here we might as well share our information. You know our fighting styles and what Jutsu we know since there is a chance this may be a test that involves us working as a team." Naruto and Tenten both nodded since they were a bit curious to learn more about their teammate.

Tenten went first "I don't really know any jutsu besides the ones taught in the academy. I'm pretty good at taijutsu, but I prefer fighting at a distance with shuriken and other throwing objects. My accuracy is pretty good too; I can hit the bull's-eye every single time," said Tenten quite proud of herself.

Shikamaru stood up and smirked "Well outside of the basic Academy jutsu the only jutsu I know is… ," said the Nara as he went through some hand seals "Shadow Possession Jutsu!" shouted Shikamaru as a shadow stretched forward and grabbed Tenten and Naruto. The two of them quickly realized that they had no control over their bodies when their hands moved to scratch the backs of their heads. "This Jutsu paralyzes the opponent and makes them imitate my movements." Tenten nodded while Naruto was a little disappointed expecting that Shikamaru knew more of the Nara clan's jutsu than that, but nodded anyway. "I'm bad at close quarters combat, but my genjutsu is decent."

After Shikamaru undid the jutsu he and Tenten looked at Naruto waiting for him to share his abilities. Naruto was about to share everything, but decided against it not wanting to anger Tenten again with the large amount of ninjutsu that he already knew and didn't tell her about. "_I guess I can slowly reveal my Jutsu to them and say I learned them from scrolls later on_," thought the Uzumaki as he took out a storage scroll. Naruto opened up the scroll and unsealed the sword within it that had some type of tag wrapped around it. "Like I said yesterday, I practice fuinjutsu in my free time. The tag on this blade is one of my own inventions. I call it a lightning seal," said the blond as the blade of the sword became enveloped in electricity. Shikamaru and Tenten were surprised that the blond had invented his own fuinjutsu seal.

"You said one of the seals you invented; what other seals did you make?" asked Shikamaru as the blond reached another side of his belt and pulled out a kunai from a pouch with a different tag wrapped around it.

"This is called a flash seal. It can disable your vision for a few seconds and take away your hearing for several hours. I won't demonstrate this one since it wouldn't be productive to make you guys deaf before the test," said Naruto as he put the kunai back in the pouch before he started to unbuckle an armguard on his left arm. The Uzumaki was now holding the guard in his left hand and showed his two teammates a seal on the underside of the armguard. While doing this the blond used his right hand to roll up his left arm's sleeve before moving his left armguard to his right hand. The blond was now showing them a seal on his left forearm "I call this one my weight manipulation seal. Think of it as a training weight that I can adjust anytime I want," said Naruto before rolling down his sleeve and strapping his armguard back on. Now Tenten and the Nara were wondering just how many seals the boy invented. After that Naruto went on to explain how his recording and radio seals worked.

"Naruto… just how many seals did you make?" asked Tenten.

"Oh those are the only ones," answered Naruto as he put away his seals. "The only combat related seals I have on me that I didn't invent are explosive tags."

"_How did Naruto manage to invent so many seals? I heard that fuinjutsu was dropped from the Academy program due to the difficulty of the art. To be knowledgeable enough in the art to invent his own seals means that someone must have taught him,"_ thought Shikamaru before he sighed "troublesome," he whispered to himself. "You said that you also practiced ninjutsu, yesterday."

Naruto nodded before going through some hand seals "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" screamed the blond before another black clad blond poofed into existence. "This is the Shadow Clone Jutsu. It creates solid clones," said Naruto as he placed his arm around his clone's shoulder as it did the same.

Tenten wasn't angry at Naruto, but she was saddened when it became obvious to her that Naruto rejected nearly all of her offers to train together for years just to train on his own or someone else. It made her wonder what Naruto really thought of her.

The clone dispelled after Naruto moved away from it to face a tree "_Okay I'll reveal one more of my jutsu and that should be enough,_" thought the blond as he went through some hand seals "Wind Style: Vacuum sphere!" shouted Naruto as transparent beams shot out of his mouth one at a time, tearing through the tree. "That's all the jutsu I have in my arsenal. As you guys already know I'm almost as good as Tenten when it comes to using shuriken and I'm pretty good at taijutsu as well, but my genjutsu is below average." Tenten and Shikamaru were impressed.

"Interesting, Naruto can you share some of your seals with us? Those radio seals can come in handy in a number of different scenarios," said Shikamaru before Naruto nodded and gave both his teammates two of every seal he had on him besides his weight manipulation seals. Shikamaru and Tenten pocketed the seals.

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Noon

Asuma had just arrived via shunshin and saw squad 10 leaning against the training posts. "Okay team, time to start your test," said Asuma as he held out tow bells. "Today we will do the bell exercise. The objective is to take a bell from me by any means. If you get a bell you pass, if not you go back to the academy."

"So, are you saying only two of us can pass?" asked Shikamaru.

"Yep that's right," answered Asuma making Shikamaru narrow his eyes.

"Hold on you're a Jonin, how do you expect us to even touch you let alone steal something from you?" asked Tenten.

"I'll leave that up to you to figure out. I promise not to use any weapons against you guys along with high level jutsu. Now any more questions?" asked Asuma as he watched the genin hopefuls look at him both serious and silent. "Good, you have until sunset. Begin!" and as soon as Asuma shouted begin squad 10 jumped back and disappeared into the forestry. "_Well at least they know how to hide themselves, but I was hoping at least one of them would challenge me straight out,_" thought the Jonin as he took out a pack of cigarettes put one in his mouth and lit it.

Asuma stood there in the clearing until a barrage of kunai and shuriken came from a tree that Asuma knew Tenten was hiding in. The bearded Jonin smirked before going through some hand seals "Wind style: Great Breakthrough!" the kunai and shuriken that the genin threw knocked off course and scattered across the battlefield. "Projectile type weapons are useless against those with wind release, Tenten," said the Jonin before he made a dash to her location.

"Shadow possession jutsu!" shouted the voice of Shikamaru as Asuma quickly jumped backwards narrowly avoiding the jutsu. The Jonin watched as the shadow extended to its maximum limit before receding back into the forestry.

"_That was close. It would be trouble if I got caught in that jutsu; it's the reason why I decided to start this thing at noon so, he wouldn't be able to use the shadow of the wall to increase its range. Sure, I could break out of it with a burst of chakra, but it could stop me long enough for one of his teammates to grab a bell,_" thought Asuma before five blond shadow clones leapt out of the bushes. "_Shadow Clone Jutsu? When did he learn that?"_

The shadow clones dashed forward and Asuma got in a defensive stance. One of the clones went for a leg sweep, but Asuma jumped back. Another clone used the first clone as a spring board to get closer to throw a punch at Asuma while a third clone approached from the side. The bearded man blocked the second clone and grabbed it by the wrist and shirt before he threw it at the approaching third clone making them both disperse. The first, fourth and fifth clones all surrounded the bearded man in a triangle formation. Asuma smirked before making a dash for the first clone causing the fourth and fifth to try and flank him. Just as the fourth and fifth attacked the Jonin, Asuma substituted with the first clone causing it to disperse. The smoke from the dispersal blocked the vision of the two remaining clones before the arms of Asuma came out of the smoke and grabbed the two by their necks. After that Asuma simply slammed the two clones into the ground causing two more dispersals.

"Tch. If you have too many shadow clones on the field you're giving your opponent something to use as a substitution. It's the reason why most shinobi even with high chakra capacity use only one or two clones at a time!" shouted Asuma to make sure the blond heard him from wherever he was hiding.

Two more Narutos came running out of the bushes one after the other and Asuma took a stance before sighing"I thought you were smarter than th-" Asuma stopped mid-sentence when he noticed the two Naruto's were running at the same speed and moving their bodies in the same exact way. Asuma quickly dashed next to the side of the two Naruto's and watched them both turn their heads to him. The Jonin ran forward and punched the one flanking the first Naruto. The 'Naruto' turned into Shikamaru and fell backwards on the ground before the real Naruto unsealed his sword and used it to swing at Asuma diagonally. The bearded Jonin barely dodged by leaning backwards, but the sword managed to cut his cigarette in half. Asuma spit the half a cigarette at Naruto's face before the Jonin spun around and hit the blond in the side of his head with his backhand.

"_That was close, maybe I should take these kids more seriously_," thought Asuma before he punched Naruto in the jaw. Suddenly, Asuma heard the familiar sound of a barrage of kunai and shuriken coming from the wall. Asuma quickly leapt out of the way only for the barrage to never come; he looked to the wall and saw nothing. Then when he looked at where Naruto and Shikamaru were just a moment before they were gone. After that Asuma heard the voice of himself calling out 'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough' "_What was that?_" thought Asuma.

After twenty minutes of nothing, two barrages of shuriken from two different locations came flying at the Jonin. Asuma easily avoided them with his speed as the shuriken barrage followed him throughout the Training field. "_They're using teamwork? I didn't think they would get it so soon,_" thought the Jonin as the barrage finally ended.

Asuma heard some rustling from the bushes and then some fast approaching footsteps. The Sarutobi looked to his side and smiled when he saw Naruto running at him with a kunai in his mouth. The blond dashed forward at an impressive speed and threw a punch, but Asuma sidestepped at the last moment and caught the blond by the wrist. The Jonin quickly pulled the blond into a punch of his own, but was shocked to see the genin burst into a cloud of smoke. The Kunai the blond was using didn't disappear with him and hid the ground. Asuma quickly noticed the tag strapped to it and turned around to jump away before he heard a loud boom that made him go deaf.

Asuma with his hearing gone decided to jump backwards to the stone wall so no one would be able to sneak up on him. Then Tenten suddenly appeared out of the forestry and the two engaged in a taijutsu match. Asuma took a low stance to match Tenten's height as she threw a punch. The bearded man blocked it and throwing an uppercut at the girl that she narrowly dodged. Asuma was now standing up straight so Tenten decided to try a low kick at the man's leg. Asuma stepped back, but the girl fired off another kick at his mid section and Asuma caught her foot in his hands before spinning around and tossing the girl away. Tenten landed on her feet and smiled before leaping back to the forestry.

Asuma was confused by this until he saw a series of black shadows stretching across the whole training field being linked together by the discarded shuriken and kunai on the ground. Asuma's eyes widened and decided to try to jump to the forestry, but the man suddenly fell to his knees when he felt a burst of electricity shoot out of the wall and shock him. Asuma looked back to the wall to see that there were several fuinjutsu tags placed on it. Asuma was captured in the shadow possession before Tenten reappeared and snatched the bells.

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After a few hours, Asuma's hearing came back. "Okay do you mind explaining to me what you did to the cliff wall? I've never heard of fuinjutsu tags that made lightning or disabled hearing and what was that barrage I heard coming from the wall before anyway."

Naruto grinned "That's because I invented those seals in my spare time. The sounds you heard earlier were the work of my recording seal that Tenten used to record the sound of her first shuriken barrage."

"Tenten placed the lightning and recording seals on the wall when you were busy fighting Naruto's shadow clones as part of a contingency plan that I came up with. I relayed the plan to Naruto and Tenten through another seal Naruto invented, the radio seal," informed Shikamaru as Asuma was surprised that Naruto invented his own seals, but didn't see it as impossible since he knew of how good the Uzumaki clan was in terms of fuinjutsu.

Asuma sighed "Okay now that you three have the bells which one of you are going back to the Academy?"

Shikamaru looked at Asuma "We're all staying," said the Nara making Tenten and Naruto nod in agreement.

"Then you pass," said Asuma.

"We… pass?" asked Tenten before Asuma nodded and Naruto looked confused.

"Hold on… what do you mean we pass? You didn't even talk to the hokage or the other Jonin-sensei. Didn't you say that only nine out of us thirty-nine Academy students could pass the test? Isn't deciding if your team passes or fail something you can't do on your own?" asked Naruto as Tenten started wondering the same thing.

Shikamaru spoke up "It was for the same reason he said that only two of us could graduate. I figured it out last night after talking to my old man. Nine students is only the average number of students that graduate the academy; everyone in our class could graduate or none of us. The only reason he said differently was to try and pit us against each other, make us that more desperate and less likely to work as a team."

Asuma grinned "You're a smart one. I can't believe you actually figured it out at your age; I look forward to facing you in a shogi match. Now let's go celebrate the formation of the new team ten."

"Don't you have to inform the Hokage we passed?" asked Naurto.

"Another time," answered Asuma.

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End

When I started this fic, I decided that I would share my view on the Jonin-sensei saying that only 9 graduated students can pass when they can decide to pass their genin squad on their own without even talking to the other Jonin-sensei or the Hokage.

3103 words, my longest chapter yet tell me what you think of the battle scene. I'm still trying to get the hang of writing battles.

Next chapter you will find out what other teams passed or failed. It can be all or none… maybe not none, but there will be failures. Then you will find out what Danzo has been up to.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Wow I've been getting a lot more views lately.**

**Chapter 11**

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Tomorrow Morning

Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting in his office, lost in his thoughts, thinking back to the time when the Jonin-sensei made their requests.

**Flashback- 1 week before the Academy graduation day**

"I'd like to request that Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Neji and Aburame Shino all join my team," said Aoba nervously as Hiruzen widened his eyes with surprise. It wasn't the request that surprised him, but what he saw. The aged hokage saw what looked like a fuinjutsu seal on the man's tongue for a split second. Hiruzen knew only of one person to apply seals to the tongue, Danzo. Aoba slightly shook his head in negative and Hiruzen nodded. The hokage understood that he intentionally showed him the seal, but couldn't speak of it.

**Flashback end**

"_How long has that seal been on Aoba and why would Danzo place it on him? Does Danzo want the Hyuuga, Aburame and Haruno?_" thought the hokage as his secretary walked through the door holding Aoba's files. "Thank you," said Hiruzen as the secretary placed the files on his desk before leaving. The aged hokage opened up one of the files to have a look.

"_Let's see here, before he became jonin he was a chunin instructor for… the class that just graduated 2 days ago… the class that Naruto was in."_ Hiruzen's eyes widened. "_The first year of that class began when Naruto started coming around here less often. Could Danzo have used Aoba to approach the boy back then, but how? I had my ANBU patrol on Naruto every single day besides the time he was in class and after Danzo enrolled his ward, I tightened the patrol. Then after the incident between Naruto and Tenten I made sure to include the time he spent in the Academy._" Several years ago Hiruzen didn't think too much about Naruto visiting him less frequently because his ANBU had informed him that the Uzumaki had made friends with a young girl name Tenten. The Hokage continued to ponder as he looked through Aoba's files. "_It seems that Aoba jumped up to Jonin level, during the first year of Naruto's class, in three different areas. Those areas were taijutsu, genjutsu and fire-style ninjutsu as well as reaching chunin level in kenjutsu. All of those are skills that the Uchiha clan is famous for. I wonder if… no I'm reading too much into this,_" thought the Hokage before he looked at the clock on his wall and sighed. "I'll have to put this off until later. It's time for the Jonin-sensei meeting," said Hiruzen to himself as he put the files in a desk drawer.

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Jonin-sensei meeting

The Hokage, Clan heads, Jonin-sensei, Danzo and the elder council were all present in the council room. Gai stepped forward "Squad 1 passed, they picked up teamwork quickly." Hiruzen and the council nodded before the Jonin-sensei of squad's 2 through 6 announced that their genin had all failed.

Kakashi went next "Squad 7 passed," said Kakashi "_but just barely. Sasuke and Yagura worked together from the start, but didn't include Kiba until I tied him to a training post and explained the point of the exercise to all three of them,_" thought the copy ninja to himself.

Kurenai went next "Squad 8 failed, but I request that Ino be assigned to me next year if she passes again." Inoichi raised an eyebrow before Kurenai explained "Near the end of the test she tried to bring the team together, but her teammates either chose to ignore her or not include her in their plans. After the test I performed the mind reading technique on her to see if she had understood the point of the test and she did." Inoichi was disappointed that his daughter failed, but proud to hear that she behaved like a kunoichi of the leaf. Inoichi came out of his thoughts when he heard that Squad 9 failed.

Asuma stepped forward "Squad 10 passed," said Asuma, keeping the fact that the genin actually managed to get the bells off of him a secret since he didn't want his fellow Jonin thinking that he was getting sloppy.

Itachi went next "Squad 11 failed, next year I advise that you do not give me an all kunoichi team. As soon as they found out I was Sasuke's older brother they turned on each other and fought amongst themselves for the duration of the test." Fugaku glared angrily at his son and Itachi sighed. "Until then I'm going to rejoin ANBU," said Itachi before he turned around and left as the Jonin of Squad 12 announced that his team failed.

Fugaku continued to glare as Itachi walked out the door not noticing that everyone was now staring at him. Fugaku looked around when he noticed the glares and cleared his throat "I believe we still have one more Jonin to hear from, Mr. Yamashiro," said Fugaku as he motioned to Aoba.

Aoba's eyes widened for a second before they went back to normal "Squad 13 passed."

Hiruzen nodded and after the names of the twelve new genin were recorded the meeting ended.

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Danzo returned to his base, smiling. For some reason he didn't understand, he was happy that Naruto's team graduated.

After arriving at his base, the old war hawk journeyed to his study. Danzo took a file from his desk and sat down. This file contained the identity of Tenten's father and as the one eyed man looked upon it he sighed. He managed to get this information over four years ago. Half a year after he started training Naruto, he had Kazan disguise himself as a member of the Explosion corps to sneak into Iwagakure and take the blood samples and records of the only three possible fathers.

After he finally identified who her father was Danzo stopped to think and knew that Naruto wouldn't stay loyal to him if he put Tenten through the emotional conditioning after seeing his initial reaction to ROOT.

Now Danzo began wondering if the removal of emotions were really necessary for shinobi. Over these past five years Danzo has come to realize that his best ROOT agents all had emotions. Kabuto has become his right hand man, Kazan has had a 100% success rate on all his missions, Kaisen had the same results as Kazan and even Naruto has become reliable. Then there are all his agents in the various shinobi clans. His emotionless ROOT on the other hand fails about half of their missions and their death rate was rather high. "_I saw emotions as weak years ago, when I hesitated to go on that suicide mission during the first shinobi war. I hesitated because I let myself feel fear and because of my hesitation Hiruzen volunteered before me and Tobirama-sensei made him the third hokage. After that I came to the conclusion that emotions only lead to hesitation and decided to protect the peace of the village by creating ROOT, an organization that is not weakened by emotions and operates in secret,_" thought Danzo as one of his younger agents arrived.

"Danzo-sama I failed the genin exam, I await my punishment," said Sai as he leaned on one knee before Danzo.

"_Perhaps it's time for a change_," thought Danzo as he looked up at the boy "Sai, your punishment will be to inform everyone that ROOT will no longer disallow the expression of emotions." Sai looked up "You will re-enroll in the Academy again next year with Fu and Torune's class. This time I want you to… try to make some friends."

Sai bowed "Hai, Danzo-sama," said Sai with a smile. Danzo was surprised to see the boy smile and he could tell that it wasn't a fake one either. Sai got up and ran off.

"_This will take some getting used to,_" thought Danzo.

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Training Ground 10

Squad 10 was waiting for their Jonin-sensei to arrive. Naruto was trying out taijutsu combos against the training post while Tenten was firing her shuriken at some shadow clones Naruto made to help her practice against moving targets. Shikamaru was taking a nap while his team mates trained until an explosion of smoke erupted next to him making the Nara quickly awaken and jump in surprise.

"Mornin team, good to see that at least two of you started training on your own; Shikamaru you should follow your team mate's examples and stop being so lazy," said the Jonin making the Nara groan and his team mates snicker. After Naruto dispersed his clones he and Tenten walked over to Asuma and Shikamaru.

"Troublesome," said the Nara.

Asuma sighed "Okay now before we start today, are there any specific skills you want to learn?"

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"I mean stuff like taijutsu, ninjutsu, bukijutsu you know that sort of thing."

Shikamaru sighed "Do you by any chance know genjutsu?" the Nara asked making everyone look at him "As I've said before I don't like getting in fights and something like genjutsu would make that problem less troublesome."

Asuma looked at the Nara before shaking his head in negative "Sorry, while I have some skill in genjutsu it's mainly on how to get out of one." Shikamaru sighed again and looked like he decided to give up on learning genjutsu until Asuma spoke again "But I do have a… friend that has become an expert at the art. The genin team she was assigned failed the test so she may have the time to tutor you." Shikamaru nodded.

Tenten raised her hand and Asuma called on her. "Do you happen to know anyone that can tutor me in medical ninjutsu?" she asked with an excited smile.

Asuma shook his head in negative making the girl hang her head until Naruto spoke "I know someone Tenten," said the blond surprising everyone.

Tenten grabbed Naruto by the hand and began dragging him out of the training field "Why didn't you tell me sooner? You've got to introduce me to this medical-nin," said Tenten with a happy smile while Asuma and Shikamaru looked at the scene and sighed.

Asuma thought about calling them back, but decided against it since this would help Tenten grow. "Alright you little slacker lets go meet your genjutsu tutor," said Asuma making Shikamaru say something under his breath that sounded like 'troublesome'

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Konoha streets

Tenten was still dragging Naruto by the hand while some of the civilians watched in confusion. "Um Tenten shouldn't I be the one leading and can I have my hand back now?" asked the Uzumaki making Tenten turn around, looked at their hands and they both blushed a little before she let go. Both of them felt a little awkward and the just stood there before Naruto started walking and motioned for her to follow.

As the two walked together Tenten noticed all the hateful looks Naruto was getting from the villagers and wondered why. At first she used to think it was because of that incident with the explosion five years ago, but then she remembered how all the other kids said their parents told them he was a monster even before that. "Naruto, do you know why everyone hates you?" asked Tenten and the blond continued walking, but didn't respond. Tenten asked him again but this time she grabbed him by the arm.

Naruto stopped and looked at the brunette. "_Should I tell her?"_ thought the blond as he remembered how she reacted when she found out he was practicing fuinjutsu in secret. Then he remembered how she remained his friend all these years despite all the times everyone said that he was a loser or a demon. "_I've kept enough secrets from her. I should be able to trust her with my secrets and I know she'll stick by me like she always has,_" thought Naruto as he moved closer to her ear and whispered "I'll tell you later. There are too many people around for me to tell you now." Tenten nodded before the two genin continued to their destination.

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Konoha Hospital

Naruto and Tenten had just walked into the hospital. "What are you doing here?" said an angry nurse.

Naruto looked up at the nurse before responding "I'm here to see Kabuto."

"He's not in," responded the nurse before a brown-haired girl with golden eyes walked into the hospital along with her feminine looking black haired companion.

"Naruto-kun!" screamed the girl before she leapt forward and hugged the boy much to Tenten's surprise and irritation. Over the past 4 years Naruto had developed a strong friendship with Yakumo and Haku after Yakumo learned that Naruto played a part in her rescue.

"Naruto… kun? Naruto who are these girls?" asked Tenten with a splash of anger in her voice.

The black haired one sighed "My name is Toriichi Haku and this is my Nee-san, Toriichi Yakumo. I'm a boy by the way," said Haku shocking Tenten.

"My name is Tenten and forgive me for thinking you were a…," said Tenten as she apologized for thinking that he was a girl.

Haku smiled and cut her off by speaking "It's alright I got used to people thinking I'm a girl years ago."

"Nii-san you're older than me so stop introducing me to people as your nee-san," said Yakumo as she continued to hold onto Naruto.

"But you were with Tou-san longer than me so you are my nee-san," Haku answered before she pulled Yakumo off of Naruto "Nice seeing you again Naruto, but now we need to see Kabuto-san for Yakumo-nee's monthly check-up," said the boy before he began dragging Yakumo down the hall. Naruto and Tenten looked at the nurse with narrowed eyes before following Yakumo and Haku.

"Hey hold on Haku," said Naruto as Haku and Yakumo stopped to see Naruto and Tenten jog towards them. "We actually came here to see Kabuto too."

Haku nodded and the four of them started walking to Kabuto's room "Hey are you two by any chance adoptive siblings?" asked Tenten thinking about Haku's comment earlier.

"That's right Yakumo and I were both orphans, but Tou-san saved both of us from our loneliness," answered Haku with a smile as they arrived at Kabuto's room.

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Kabuto's room

Kabuto was reading a medical book as he heard his door open "Ah, Yakumo-chan I was expecting you, lay down and I'll perform the analysis jutsu," said Kabuto without looking away from his book. Yakumo lied down while Naruto, Tenten and Haku sat down in some chairs. Kabuto heard more than one person sit down and looked away from the book "Naruto-kun? I wasn't expecting to see you here today."

"Naruto… kun?" said Tenten wondering just how many people were familiar enough with Naruto to call him Naruto-kun.

Kabuto looked at the bun haired girl "You must be Tenten; Naruto-kun has talked about you a great deal," said Kabuto making Tenten and Naruto blush in embarrassment. Kabuto laughed "I'll be with you two after I'm done with Yakumo-chan," said the silver-haired teen before his hands became enveloped in a familiar green glow. Kabuto placed his hands over Yakumo and began the analysis.

"What's wrong with her anyway?" Tenten whispered to Naruto.

"She was born with a very frail body, but since four years ago she's been taking special vitamins to help her improve. So far they have been working great, but her Tou-san insists that she go see Kabuto once a month," Naruto whispered back.

After a few minutes Kabuto removed his hands "You're in perfect health Yakumo. You're even in better shape than most genin now."

Yakumo nodded before Haku stood up "Thank you for your time as always, Kabuto-san," said Haku before he and his sister left the room.

As the door closed Kabuto looked over to Naruto and Tenten "Now what can I help you with?" Then Naruto explained how Tenten wanted to learn medical ninjutsu. Kabuto nodded and went to his bookshelf and pulled out a book on the basics of medical ninjutsu. "Well I can't start teaching you medical ninjutsu until you learn the basics. Once you learn those I'll tutor you," said Kabuto as he handed Tenten the book.

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End

Well this is mostly me adding some stuff to Shikamaru and Tenten's arsenals before I have the team set out to do a real mission and introducing Tenten to people. I'm also getting close to Tenten becoming aware of her Kekkei genkei. It'll happen within five chapters at the most… in hindsight I should have revealed explosion release later than I did or plan for her to get it sooner.

I've received PMs and reviews from multiple people asking if I was planning to make Danzo a good guy or have him and Naruto become enemies. After thinking it over it was best that I decided now and since I've got a mess of villains planned out already, some of them you wouldn't even expect, guess which path I chose. I hope everyone enjoys the good Danzo path.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

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Naruto and Tenten walked out of the hospital with the later happily clutching a book on the basics of medical ninjutsu in her arms. "Thank you for helping me find a tutor Naruto," said Tenten as she looked over to her blond companion. The Uzumaki nodded and the two continued walking until a thought crossed Tenten's mind "Wait I just dragged us out of our first official team meeting and before you could tell Asuma-sensei what you wanted to study. I bet Asuma-sensei is going to kill us." Tenten looked at Naruto nervously "Sorry Naruto, I guess I got carried away when you told me that you knew someone that could help me with medical ninjutsu," she said nervously with one eye open, scratching the back of her head and sticking out her tongue to the side.

Naruto looked at Tenten and smiled "Don't worry about it, there wasn't anything new I wanted to study anyway," answered Naruto making Tenten nod before the blond continued "Besides Asuma-sensei didn't stop us and he seems to be a laid back guy so I doubt he's angry. Although I bet he and Shikamaru already left to go see that genjutsu tutor Asuma-sensei was talking about."

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At the same time on a random roof top

A sitting Kurenai was looking at Shikamaru and Asuma who were standing in front of her "So, he wants to learn how to not only use genjutsu, but master it?" asked Kurenai pointing at the Nara and the two males nodded. This got Kurenai curious "It's a bit unusual for boys outside of the Uchiha clan to want to study in genjutsu. Don't get me wrong I find it quite refreshing that someone from your generation is taking an active interest in the art, but may I ask why exactly you wish to learn it?"

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck "I find taijutsu and ninjutsu combat troublesome; one wrong move can cost you everything and the battles can drag out too long. I want to play a supportive role that doesn't have to deal with that. Besides, trapping an enemy in a genjutsu will work perfectly with my Shadow Possession Jutsu," finished the Nara.

Kurenai closed her eyes and sighed "An excellent strategy that sounds as if it could work for anything, but there are 3 reasons why most people don't do this: 1. it takes a lot of time and effort to master genjutsu to a level where you can trap most people in one and even then you cannot be certain that your genjutsu will work. 2. Using a ninjutsu right after a genjutsu takes a lot of chakra and many do not have the capacity to do this continuously. 3. Trapping someone in a genjutsu is more difficult for one that doesn't have access to a genjutsu based hiden Jutsu or born without a genjutsu based Kekkei genkei. For those people they have to spend most of their lives focusing purely on genjutsu to make up for that weakness," responded Kurenai before she opened her eyes to glare at the young Nara "By attempting to master genjutsu your skills in both taijutsu and ninjutsu will suffer. The only ones I know that have a good balance between all three are the Uchiha clan because of their Sharingan. Attempting to become a genjutsu master is a big decision are you sure this is the road you wish to travel?"

Shikamaru looked thoughtful for a second and sighed "It's troublesome but I'm going to need to raise my chakra capacity."

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Next morning 4:17 am

Naruto was awoken by the sound of someone knocking at his front door. The blond climbed out of bed and made his way to his door before opening it. Naruto saw a smiling Tenten holding a couple fishing poles and some nets.

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Later

A soaked Naruto and Tenten walked onto training field 10 with the later holding her medical book and saw Shikamaru, but to their surprise the boy wasn't asleep or lazing around. The Nara was walking up and down the cliff wall. "Hey Shikamaru what got into you? Yesterday you weren't doing anything, but now you're actually training?" asked Naruto while he and Tenten stared at the shadow user.

"Yeah, did you finally decide to take ninja work more seriously?" asked Tenten.

Shikamaru had his usual bored expression on his face as he continued to walk up and down the cliff wall. Without even looking at his two teammates the Nara spoke "I have no interest in troublesome stuff like taijutsu and offensive ninjutsu. Yesterday when Asuma-sensei and I went to see Kurenai-sensei, she told me how troublesome it is for people with low chakra capacity to learn genjutsu. So, I decided to increase my capacity."

Naruto and Tenten were surprised "Well… glad to see you're so committed to genjutsu. With that kind of dedication I'm sure one day you'll become a genjutsu master in no time," said Naruto with a smile while Tenten nodded.

"Thanks," said Shikamaru, still without stopping. "So how did the meeting with Tenten's tutor go and why are you two soaked?" asked Shikamaru as he finally stopped due to being low on chakra and glanced at his two teammates.

Naruto pulled out a scroll from his belt "Well we got to meet him and he gave Tenten a book on the basics of medical ninjutsu. After Tenten read the book she asked me to help her catch some fish to practice her medical ninjutsu on," said the blond as he unsealed the scroll to reveal a medium sized pool filled with several fish. Tenten started to flip through the book while Naruto took out one of the fish and killed it.

Shikamaru watched as Naruto placed the dead fish in front of Tenten as the brunette set the book aside. Shikamaru being curious decided to pick up the medical book causing Tenten to look at him "Do you mind if I borrow this? I need something to read while I wait for my chakra to return."

"I don't mind at all go right ahead," said Tenten with a smile as her hands took on a green glow before she placed them over the fish. To Tenten's frustration the fish remained motionless. The girl tried and tried, but nothing changed.

After 20 minutes "Tenten I think it's time you use a different fish," said Naruto making Tenten a little angry, but that anger didn't last long. Tenten sighed and nodded before Naruto killed another fish and brought it in front of her. Tenten tried and failed again to bring the fish back to life.

After about an hour Asuma showed up and raised an eyebrow when he saw a pool of fish. "_They're here… early as usual. Well it's good that I don't have to motivate them," _thought the Sarutobi with a shrug as he started to move closer to his genin. When he got closer to his students he saw a small pile of dead fish and Tenten trying to use medical ninjutsu on another one. "I see you're practicing medical ninjutsu," said Asuma causing Naruto and Tenten to look at their sensei while Shikamaru kept his nose buried in the book.

"Asuma-sensei," said Naruto and Tenten.

"Well you can do this later right now we need to get some D-rank missions in. You kids do need money to pay for food, rent, equipment y'know that sort of stuff," said Asuma as Naruto and Tenten nodded with the former resealing the pool of fish in the scroll. The three of them set off, but stopped when they noticed that Shikamaru wasn't following behind causing Asuma to let out a sigh "Shikamaru did you hear me!?" screamed Asuma since the three were now a good distance away from the Nara. Shikamaru looked up from the medical book to see his team was leaving the training area. "We're doing some D-rank missions today!" screamed Asuma with his hand cupped to the side of his mouth.

Shikamaru sighed, put the book in his back pocket and began walking towards his team. "_How troublesome I got so caught up in the book that I didn't even realize Asuma-sensei was already here._"

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Mission office; fifteen minutes later

The members of Squad 10 were standing in front of the Sandaime Hokage and Izumo. Asuma looked at his old man "Squad 10 reporting for a D-rank mission."

Hiruzen looked at his son and then Naruto before closing his eyes "It's good to see squad 10 finally reporting for a mission," said Hiruzen as he opened his eyes and looked down at the long line of D-rank scrolls "Out of all the new genin squads, squad 10 is the last to request a mission," the old hokage sighed sadly. "I bet Izumo 10,000 ryo that squad 7 would be the last squad to show up," said Hiruzen causing Izumo to smile. The aged Hokage picked up a D-rank scroll and threw it at Asuma.

Asuma caught the scroll and opened it "looks like we're painting fences. Okay let's get this over with," said Asuma before he and squad 10 turned to exit the mission office. Hiruzen watched his son and squad 10 leave.

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Later

**Asuma and Shikamaru POV**

Naruto and Tenten were painting the first of four fences while Asuma watched them while Shikamaru hung upside down from a nearby tree branch, reading a book. Asuma looked up at his third student "Shikamaru, I think it's a good thing that you are so serious about increasing your chakra capacity and control, but you should be focusing more on the mission on hand. If you don't do any work you won't get paid."

Shikamaru spoke up without looking away from the book "Naruto and Tenten can take the full mission pay, they need it more than me anyway."Asuma glared at the boy for a little while before he sighed and placed a cigarette in his mouth before lighting it.

**Naruto and Tenten POV**

The two genin continued to paint the fence "Hey Naruto," said Tenten causing the blond to look over had his female teammate. "You never did tell me why everyone hated you. I forgot about it because of all the excitement with meeting Yakumo-san, Haku and Kabuto," whispered the kunoichi.

Naruto looked over to Asuma who was now looking at Shikamaru. Naruto looked back at Tenten "You can come over to my place later tonight and we'll talk about it then," Naruto whispered back making Tenten nod.

**End POV**

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Mission Office

Squad 10 once again stood in the mission hall, but this time they only stood in front of the Hokage. Naruto and Tenten were covered in splashes of paint while Shikamaru's clothes were completely clean. The Nara was reading the opened medical book in one hand while he was performing the kunai balancing technique with the other. "Squad 10's fence painting mission was a success," said Asuma in a bored voice before placing his hand on top of Shikamaru's head much to the Nara's annoyance. "While the mission was a success, this genin refused to do any work. He already agreed to forfeit his share of the pay."

Hiruzen nodded before he wrote two checks for Naruto and Tenten "Squad 10 is dismissed except Naruto-kun; I wish to speak with him… alone," said the Hokage after giving the checks to the two genin.

"_Naruto… kun?_" thought Tenten. Asuma sighed before he placed his hands on the backs of his two students and guided them out of the mission hall. Before they were out of the hall Tenten took one look back at Naruto "_How does he know the Hokage? I'll be getting some answers tonight._"

As soon as the rest of squad 10 left Hiruzen stood up from his chair and walked over to Naruto "Naruto-kun, how are things working out with your new squad?" asked Hiruzen.

Naruto just stood there before responding "Things are working out fine Hokage-sama," said Naruto with a small smile.

The hokage turned around and looked down sadly remembering the days when the shinobi in front of him used to call him Jiji. The Hokage chuckled "Naruto-kun, there's no need to be so formal."

"But you are the Hokage and you deserve to be addressed as Hokage-sama. It's disrespectful to address you as anything but."

"I'd prefer it if you'd call me Jiji like when you were younger," the hokage said with a smile making Naruto frown.

"Sorry Hokage-sama, but I can't do that," said the blond causing Hiruzen to gain a curious look "If I were to call you Jiji and you allowed it that might cause others to think that you play favorites among your shinobi; it may also make others think of you as a weak Kage that can be taken advantage of. Having the shinobi under your command as well as the other villages view you as weak will only serve to weaken Konoha," responded Naruto calmly.

"I see," said the hokage as he pulled on his goatee. "_When did Naruto-kun start thinking about stuff like this?_" thought Hiruzen as he frowned. Naruto stopped calling him Jiji over four years ago, a few months after he started visiting him less; then two years ago, Naruto's visits stopped completely.

Hiruzen was interrupted from his thoughts when Naruto spoke up "If there's nothing else you need to discuss with me, I need to get back to my team," said the blond as he turned his back to the hokage and began walking away. Hiruzen looked at the boy and pulled his hat down over his eyes, thinking that Danzo may have actually put the boy through his ROOT's emotional conditioning somehow right under his nose. Hiruzen walked back over to the mission desk, but when Naruto just reached the door the blond turned around "It was nice talking to you again, Hokage-sama," said the genin with a small smile. Hiruzen looked up at the boy and smiled back.

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Squad 10

On the way back to training field 10 Naruto caught up with his squad. "What did the hokage want?" asked Tenten.

Naruto just shrugged "He just asked me how I was doing."

Both Shikamaru and Tenten were wondering why the Hokage would be concerned about Naruto before Asuma spoke up "Naruto used to visit my old man a lot when he was younger. Dad told me once that he sees Naruto as part of the family."

This caused the Shikamaru and Tenten to look up at their sensei "you're the Hokage's SON!?" the two genin screamed out making Asuma smile awkwardly and scratch the back of his head.

"Did I neglect to mention that?" asked Asuma making Shikamaru and Tenten nod. "Well I'm not exactly proud to call him dad so I can see why it would slip my mind." Asuma then looked over to Naruto who didn't seem to have any reaction to the news about his parentage. Asuma shrugged "_Maybe the old man told Naruto before,"_ thought the Jonin

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Training ground 10

As soon as squad 10 arrived at the training ground, Naruto unsealed the pool of fish again and killed one before Tenten began the medical exercise again while Shikamaru and Asuma watched them. After a while Tenten threw the fish at the pile of dead fish she made earlier that morning that was now covered in insects. Naruto took out another fish and killed it before setting it down in front of Tenten. Shikamaru shrugged and moved towards the stone wall to do his chakra building exercises again.

After a couple hours, Tenten was lying down on the ground panting "Why can't I do it!?" screamed the girl before she slammed the side of her fist into the grass.

"You know you don't have to become a medical ninja to be like Tsunade," said Naruto making Tenten sit up to look at him with an annoyed face. Naruto let out a nervous laugh before continuing "She was famous for other things like… fuinjutsu for example. I can even tutor you in it… if you want... to that is."

Tenten looked angry and puffed up her checks before sighing "I guess you're right maybe I just wasn't cut out to be a medical nin," said Tenten sadly while Naruto was feeling bad that he ended up discouraging her. "I guess we should dump these fish back into the lake," said Tenten as she stood up.

Shikamaru walked up to his teammates "Hey before you guys do that can you kill one more of those fish, I want to give it a try," said the Nara making both Tenten and Naruto to look at him with surprise.

"I should have figured you'd want to try this; you've had your nose buried in that medical book all day," said Naruto with a small smile before he walked over to the pool and fished out one of the few remaining fish before killing it and setting it on the ground in front of Shikamaru. Shikamaru sat down and his hands glow green before placing them over the fish. Much to Tenten's annoyance after a couple minutes later the recently dead fish was flopping around on the ground, full of life.

Asuma walked over to his genin team "Interesting, looks like you're a natural Shikamaru," said Asuma causing Tenten to glare at the man which made the jonin flinch a little. The bearded man regained his composure by cleared his throat "Well Shika do you want to try being a medical nin or genjutsu master? You could try both, but that might be too 'troublesome' for you," said Asuma with a smile as he did his best Shikamaru impersonation when he said troublesome.

Shikamaru sighed "It is too troublesome, but it's more troublesome to not have a medical-nin on our squad. Besides if I became a medical-nin it would lessen my chances of having to work out in the troublesome field after I get promoted to chunin."

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Training field 8

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" screamed Tobio as he continued to punch a training post "I can't believe I failed the genin exam. Now I have to either wait another year or…" Tobio stopped punching the training post and stood straight up, looking down at the ground "… give up on being a shinobi and get a civilian job." Tobio was one of the orphans from the Kyuubi attack twelve years ago and dreamed of becoming a shinobi so that he can make something of himself. He knew how much more money shinobi made than civilians and wanted to live a more comfortable life style. "Why damn it! Why!?" shouted Tobio as he punched the post one last time. "_I'm not some loser like Naruto._"

"Do you want another chance to pass the genin exam? If so there is a makeup test," said a voice from behind the boy. Tobio turned around and saw a silver haired man smiling at him.

"Who are you?" asked Tobio as he glared at the man.

"Mizuki."

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Later that night on the Konoha streets

Naruto was walking home and spotted several shinobi jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The blond wondered what was going on, but since it wasn't his mission he decided it was best to not get involved.

Naruto walked up the stairs to his apartment and noticed that his door was unlocked. The blond crept inside cautiously, but all of his caution left him when he saw Sai. Naruto sighed "I suppose Danzo-sensei wants his seals for the month," said Naruto as he walked over to his desk and pulled out a storage scroll containing this month's seal quota.

Sai accepted the seals and to Naruto's surprise the boy actually smiled "Thank you Naruto-san, but this is not why I'm here. I'll be sure to give these seals to Danzo-sama later on though."

Naruto raised an eyebrow "Then why are you here?"

"For two reasons really. The first is to inform you that ROOT will no longer practice emotion conditioning and will allow all members to express emotions when off duty," said Sai as he continued to smile. This was something the blond was not expecting and before he could fully process it the ROOT agent spoke up again. "Danzo-sama also has a mission for you." This caused Naruto to move the earlier news to the back of his head. "The forbidden scroll was stolen from the Hokage's office about three hours ago by our fellow former classmate, Tobio." This caused Naruto to widen his eyes before narrowing them. "The mission is for the two of us to track him down, retrieve the scroll and execute him." Naruto went into the next room and closed the door.

"I could handle this myself. Why does Danzo-sensei think I need back up?" asked the voice of Naruto from behind the door

"Danzo-sama found it odd that someone of fresh genin skills was able to break into the Hokage Office and steal the scroll. Even though Danzo-sama believes the defenses of that office to be poor…"

"… He doesn't believe that they are poor enough for Tobio to be able to do it without help from someone of a higher rank," finished Naruto as he walked out from the room dressed in a black hooded poncho wearing a ROOT mask over his face. "Any leads?"

"Danzo-sama believes that Tobio and his accomplice have already left the village."

Naruto looked at Sai "Then why are people searching for them inside the village? Shouldn't the sensing system technique have alerted them that someone left the village?"

"Yes, that normally would be true, but as you already know there are ways to avoid detection. It's Danzo-sama's belief that someone in the ANBU or defense divisions may be a spy," said Sai causing Naruto to growl. Sai put a hand on Naruto's shoulder "Danzo-sama already has another team investigating that so we should focus on the task given to us." Naruto nodded.

"Then let's get to it," said the blond as he and Sai disappear in shunshins.

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Naruto and Sai exited the village through the tunnels to avoid detection by the barrier jutsu "_I can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something_," thought Naruto before Sai created several Ink rodents to spread out and search for clues to which direction Tobio fled. As Naruto watched the mice scatter he created several shadow clones to search the treetops.

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End


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Well I was going to update sooner, but I spent all my writing time reading other peoples fanfics ever since I got back.**

**Chapter 13**

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Tenten walked up the stairs to Naruto's apartment "_Finally I'll know why everyone seems to despise Naruto so much_," thought the young kunoichi. Tenten knocked on Naruto's door and there was no answer "Is he asleep," she said to herself out loud before she started banging on his door.

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**4 hours earlier**

Tobio ran towards an abandoned shack; carrying the forbidden scroll in his arms. Tobio placed the scroll down on the ground and began to read "_Mizuki-sensei says if I can steal this scroll and master one technique I'll be able to graduate to genin level._" Tobio skimmed through the scroll trying to find the most powerful kinjutsu he could find. "_Shadow clone jutsu? Looks interesting, but it requires too much chakra and I could easily kill myself with chakra exhaustion. Dead Demon Consuming Seal… no, that one requires me to take my own life. Eight gates… no, that can cripple me if I overuse it. Damn it, I'm wasting time,"_ thought Tobio as he rubbed his head in frustration "_Hmm this next one looks promising. Sure it comes with a heavy price like all the other jutsu here, but I can deal with it as long as it doesn't cripple or kill me."_

**Present**

One of Naruto's clones dispelled causing the blond to gain its knowledge. "Sai one of my clones picked up a trail there's someone heading directly northwest from Konoha," said the Jinchuriki making the black-haired boy nod.

Sai took out a blank scroll and a brush before he began drawing several small birds. The ink birds came to life and all headed northwest "They'll scout ahead and redirect us if the target changes direction," said Sai as he placed a radio seal on his forearm. The two boys quickly took to the trees and began jumping from one branch to the next until Sai spoke up "Naruto you said that 'someone' is heading northwest. I'm assuming that we're only up against one target," said Sai causing the blond to look at him.

Without stopping or slowing down Naruto answered his partner "Yes the trail that my shadow clone picked up was fresh and looked as if only one person was traveling it."

"Interesting, looks like Tobio's accomplice must have eliminated him and took the scroll."

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ROOT base

Two of Danzo's ROOT had just arrived via shunshin in front of Danzo's desk "Report," said the old warhawk.

A red-haired female ROOT, which looked to be about Naruto's age, stepped forward and kneeled down on one knee "Danzo-sama, none of the fuckers that are currently in the barrier division seems to have leaked any information."

The female ROOT's partner, a fat male that was the same age as her, spoke up "North that isn't proper language for a lady."

"Shut up fatass and let me finish my damn report!" screamed North as she grew a tic mark. North cleared her throat and continued "As I was saying…" North relaxed her body and acted as if her earlier outburst never happened "After we checked the current barrier division, South and I decided to check the list of retired members." The ROOT member paused for a bit to make sure Danzo understood their train of thought before continuing "Out of all the retired barrier division members that are currently ranked as chunin there was one shithead that hasn't reported back to the hokage, hell nobody can even testify that they saw him at the mission briefing when the damn scroll was stolen. It is our belief that this chunin fled the village with the scroll," finished North making South groan, obviously upset with North's language.

Danzo was impressed with their work "_It would appear that some of my members are adjusting to my allowance of emotions rather quickly and its already producing results. In the past my ROOT would have reported back after they failed to find any leaks in the current barrier division and not try to investigate further," _thought Danzo as he gazed at his two ROOT. "What was the name of the missing chunin?"

South was the one that answered "Umino Iruka."

Danzo widened his eye slightly since he knew of this man. Danzo researched Iruka years ago when Torune and Fuu enrolled in the academy along with Haku and Yakumo. The man seemed to care about to welfare of his students and had unquestionable loyalty to Konohagakure so hearing he may be a traitor was surprising "North and South, I want you to do a village wide sweep for Umino Iruka together with East and West. Report back to me in an hour."

**1 hour later**

"Danzo-sama, the trash that goes by the name Umino Iruka is nowhere in the village," stated a white haired ROOT member with two heads.

"Thank you, West… you four are dismissed," said Danzo in a sad voice. The four ROOT members looked at their leader surprised to hear him have any kind of emotion in his tone and just stood there "I said your dismissed!" shouted Danzo causing the four ninja to disappear in shunshins "_Have I lost my ability to judge character?_" thought the old man.

**4 hours earlier (this is including the 1 hour later)**

Iruka, a tan skinned chunin with a horizontal scar across his nose, was watching TV in his apartment when he suddenly heard a loud knocking at the door. The chunin sighed and walked over to his front door before opening it. Iruka was surprised to see his friend, Mizuki, standing in his doorway with two giant shuriken strapped to his back "Mizuki what's going on?" asked Iruka as he adopted a serious look.

"One of the newly graduated academy students that failed the genin exam stole the forbidden scroll; I've already reported it to the Hokage and he should be gathering all the chunin to do a village wide sweep."

"I'll get to the meeting now," said Iruka as he turned towards the Hokage tower.

Mizuki grabbed Iruka by his bicep "There's no time Iruka the longer we wait, the higher the risk that that kid will do something stupid with the scroll." Mizuki let go of Iruka and let the scarred chunin turn around "Since you're a sensor type I figured that you'd be able to track the kid down before this village becomes flooded with several shinobi chakra signatures."

Iruka widened his eyes and smiled "That's a great idea Mizuki," said Iruka in a cheerful voice before he turned his back on the silver haired chunin to try and sense any genin level chakra signatures that are in secluded areas.

Iruka didn't notice Mizuki's dark smirk "O_nce Iruka finds Tobio, I'll kill them both and dispose of their bodies so the Yamanaka clan won't be able to do their mind reading technique. When that's done I'll be able to bring the scroll to my allies outside the village and the best part is that those two idiots will receive all the blame."_

Mizuki was pulled out of his thoughts when Iruka turned around "Mizuki I think I found him. There seems to be someone with about genin level chakra deep inside the woods, his chakra is… strange," said the scarred man with a bit of worry in his voice.

Mizuki smiled and placed his hand on the man's shoulder "Good job Iruka, lead the way. I'll be right behind you," said Mizuki before he took his hand off his shoulder and gave his 'friend' a thumbs up.

Iruka took on a serious face "Right we can't waste any time. This kid may already be doing something stupid with the scroll," said Iruka as he dashed off to the forest leaving Mizuki just standing there.

Mizuki closed his eyes and chuckled to himself a little bit "foolish foolish Iruka," he said to himself before dashing off to follow his fellow chunin.

**Present**

Naruto and Sai were following the trail left by their target. "Naruto don't you think this is a little too easy? The trail goes in one direction and so far we've seen no attempt of the target hiding what direction he's heading," said Sai as the two continued jumping from branch to branch.

Naurto looked thoughtful for a moment "I've noticed that too, but this guy managed to avoid being detected by the barrier around Konoha when he left the village. He may believe that there isn't any need to hide what direction he's heading in since everyone still things the scroll is in Konoha," said the blond before they heard Sai's radio seal going active.

"Sai, Naruto we have new information on your target," said the voice of Danzo.

"We're here Danzo-sama what information do you have for us?" asked Sai.

"North and South have informed me that Chunin, Umino Iruka, former member of the barrier division is the number one suspect in removing the scroll of secrets from Konoha. I've had them along with East and West confirmed that Umino-san is no longer in the village and it's likely that you will be facing him."

Naruto sped up his pace a little bit to get right next to Sai. "What are the skills of this Umino Iruka?" asked Naruto and Danzo went silent for a short time.

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ROOT base

Danzo was massaging his temples while he remained seated at his desk in his study "He has skills in barrier ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu. However none of these skills exceed high level chunin rank."

"Are you saying that our village defenses were breached by someone of chunin level?" asked Naruto's voice with a bit of annoyance mixed in it.

Danzo sighed "We haven't made any changes to our security system ever since the Kyuubi attack 12 years ago. As things are now any one that was part of the barrier division within the last decade and have at least chunin level knowledge of fuinjutsu can get in and out of the village without being detected, if they know what they're doing," said Danzo causing a growl from Naruto to be heard throught the seal. "I'll be bringing up this issue in our security during my next meeting with Hiruzen. The most important thing that you should know about Iruka is that he's a sensor type so if you get too close to him he'll know your following and set up some kind of-" Danzo paused mid sentence when he heard the sound of a loud explosion coming through the seal.

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**Three and a half hours earlier**

Tobio was out of breath and sitting on the ground smiling "I surprise even myself. To think I mastered such a high level jutsu in a little over an hour," said the pony tail wearing boy as he laughed. The boy through his fist up in the air "now, I'll definitely make genin and with my awesome new jutsu I'll go far in the shinobi world!" shouted the boy.

A puff of smoke burst in front of the pre-teen making the boy fall backwards. Out of the smoke came a tan man with the same hairstyle as him. "Okay young man, you're in a lot of trouble with the stunt you just pulled," said the tan man as Tobio tried to speak, but was cut off when the tan man spoke again "You had your fun, but now it's time to face the music. Before I turn you over to the Hokage tell me WHAT THE HELL POSSESED YOU TO STEAL THE SCROLL OF SECRETS!" shouted the man with a big head genjutsu scaring the boy.

"M-M-Mizuki-sensei said that if was able to steal the scroll from the Hokagae office and learn a jutsu from it then I'd be able to graduate to genin level."

Iruka looked surprised by this information "Mizuki?"

Suddenly, the two ponytail wearers heard laughter and both of them looked up to a tree branch to see Mizuki.

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End

Yeah short compared to my last six chapters but, I'm tired now and I never write a chapter in more than one sitting (I probably should) so, hope you enjoy it even though I feel like I left this half way done. Tell me what you think about the in and out flashbacks so I know if they're a good or bad idea, you can either PM or review.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Next chapter, which was supposed to be part of the previous one, is a go.**

**Note: I decided to give Sai and Naruto code names when on ROOT missions. Sai will be called Rat while Naruto will be called Hawk. I obviously can't have them calling each other by their names when in disguise that would defeat the point of disguising themselves.**

**Chapter 14**

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**1 minute earlier (from the present)**

Naruto and Sai were hoping through the trees while listening to Danzo's briefing on Iruka's skills through the radio seal. "I'll be bringing up this issue in our security during my next meeting with Hiruzen," said Danzo's voice as Naruto spotted some fuinjutsu tags placed on some trees up ahead. The blond immediately recognized the seals as explosive tags and ran through some hand seals. "The most important thing that you should know about Iruka is that he's a sensor type," continued Danzo's voice as Naruto took a big breath.

With his mouth shut and cheeks puffed the blond grabbed Sai by the scruff of his ROOT uniform and blew some air forward while mentally saying "_Wind Style: Stream_" before Naruto let out a blast of wind from his mouth that propelled the both of them backwards as soon as they passed the first explosive tag.

While this was going on Danzo's voice could still be heard from the seal "so if you get too close to him he'll know your following and set up some kind of-" said Danzo before the array of explosive tags went off. Sai and Naruto landed on a tree branch that the previously passed unharmed before the both of them went on high alert. "Rat, Hawk do you copy? What happened?" asked a hectic Danzo through the seal.

Naruto and Sai were back to back with the former holding two kunai with his arms crossed while the later was holding a tanto. "We're still alive Danzo-sama, it seems that the target set up a trap," said Sai as his eyes darted around the forest.

Naruto spotted a ponytail wearing silhouette behind a tree and infused some wind chakra to his kunai before throwing it. Sai turned around when the blond threw the kunai and saw the silhouette jump away from the tree as the wind before the wind infused kunai tore through the bark. "Damn it," said the voice of the adult sized silhouette before it dashed off at speeds around that of high chunin or low jonin. The two boys managed to catch a glimpse of a shirtless tan man in the moonlight as the target dashed away.

Naruto and Sai looked at each other before nodding and pursued the shadow. "Danzo-sensei we have the target right in front of us, but it's too dark to get a good look at him. What we can tell is that he's an adult male with a ponytail and tan skin. We're currently in pursuit of the suspect who seems to be heading directly northwest away from Konoha," said Naruto as he lowered the weight on his armguards and shin guards in order to catch up. Naruto's max speed is around that of high chunin since he didn't want to over train his body at too young an age so he was still having difficulty catching up.

Sai who was not quite as fast as Naruto yet took out his scroll and brush while jumping through the tree branches and drew a large bird.

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ROOT base

Danzo was still sitting in his study staring at the radio seal before him "_Tan_ a_dult male with a ponytail? It's a vague description, but that sounds like Iruka," _thought Danzo just before he remembered the other thing Naruto said making his eyes go wide. "Hawk, you and Rat must stop that man at any cost. He's heading towards Iwa!" shouted Danzo into the seal before he took out another radio seal "I'm sending back-up that will take the space-time seal to Kusa to attempt to cut him off," said Danzo at the Hawk and Rat radio seal before he activated the newly placed radio seal.

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**Over 3 hours ago**

"Mizuki? What's going on? Did you tell this boy that he can pass the genin exam if he stole the forbidden scroll? T-t-that's an act of treason. Tell me it isn't true," said Iruka while Mizuki laughed again.

Mizuki stopped laughing and smiled before reaching for the shuriken on his back. While holding the shuriken with one arm in front of him the white haired chunin screamed "It's true!" before he tossed the huge shuriken at Tobio. Iruka immediately acted as a human shield for the boy and took the shuriken to the back of his spine.

Iruka coughed up blood which landed on the genin hopeful and started panting heavily "Hey, you okay?" asked Iruka with a smile before Mizuki let out a laugh.

Tobio and Iruka looked up at the man "You're such a sentimental fool Iruka. You reacted just the way I thought you would," said Mizuki as Iruka shot a confused, but angry glare at the silver haired man. Mizuki had the most sadistic smirk on his face "I knew if I went for the boy first you'd act as his human shield. If you were smart you wouldn't have done that since you are the only one among you two that even stands a ghost of a chance of beating me," said Mizuki as he started to draw his second giant shuriken.

Tobio was scarred and did the only thing he could think of, he ran. Mizuki looked at the boy and grunted "_Shit, if that boy gets to the village and tells everyone, my plan is doomed," _thought Mizuki before he glanced back over at Iruka "_In that state he can still put up a fight, but he won't be able to get far. Besides knowing him he'd try and save that brat instead of returning to the village to tell everyone if he can still move." _Mizuki smirked before he took off in pursuit of the pre-teen.

Tobio was dashing through the trees with the scroll before Mizuki tackled the boy causing him to fall on the ground. Tobio got back up and made a move to run away, but a giant shuriken smashed directly in between him and his desired path.

Mizuki shunshined behind his shuriken "going somewhere?" asked Mizuki as he picked up his giant shuriken. "You little shit. Because of you I couldn't fully enjoy torturing Iruka," said Mizuki as he slashed at the boys legs with his giant shuriken.

Blood sprayed out of Tobio's wound and the boy screamed before he clutched his wound. Mizuki gave a satisfied smirk like everything was right with the world. Tobio looked up at the man and spoke "Why?"

Mizuki looked at the boy "why?" asked the silver haired man "WHY!?" asked Mizuki even louder but this time in a mocking tone before he started laughing harder than any of his previous laughs. Mizuki quieted down and took a serious face "This is not some Saturday morning cartoon or old movie, kid, where the villain reveals all his evil plans before he kills you," said the man before his serious face turned into a sadistic looking one "No, this is real life you little shit, you're going to die without even knowing why."

Upon hearing this Tobio actually shit himself causing Mizuki to look at the boy in disgust. "'You' wanted to be a shinobi? Pathetic," said the man before he rose his giant shuriken over his head.

"Sayonara," said Mizuki as he swung down his shuriken only to have to jump back when another giant shuriken landed between Mizuki and his victim. Mizuki whipped his head to the direction that the shuriken came from to see a panting, bleeding and sweating Iruka with one hand stretched out, obviously the hand he threw the shuriken with. Mizuki stared at the man "_Shit, I must have missed the spine. No matter, I'll just kill him here and now. Thankfully Iruka's just as stupid as I think he is and didn't go back to the village," _thought Mizuki as a smirk took hold of him on the last sentence.

Mizuki picked up the giant shuriken on the ground with his other hand before he dashed at the injured Iruka. Just as Mizuki was right in front of Iruka, the scarred chunin made a hand seal "Barrier: Confining Technique!" screamed the tan man before a seal formed underneath their feet. Mizuki went wide eyed when he lost his ability to move. Iruka chuckled "You really are predictable Mizuki," said Iruka causing Mizuki to let out an angry growl. "Just like the old days, anytime you'd get a combat high you'd charge into battle without thinking. Then there is your little habit of underestimating weakened opponents and try to finish them off at close range," said Iruka before he coughed up a little blood, but the barrier held strong. "You even forgot about my 'Barrier: Confining Technique' that halts my opponents movements if they get close enough." Iruka looked over to Tobio "Hey kid go back to the village and get help! I'll only be able to hold him off for another hour or so."

**Present**

Sai and Naruto were riding on a giant ink bird and catching up to the target fast. When they got close enough, Naruto unsealed his sword and jumped at the man. As the blond swung his blade, two arms popped out of the shirtless man's back wielding two large shuriken and blocked Naruto's sword using a cross shaped form. The tan man turned around and kicked the blond away in mid air before Sai released a barrage of small ink birds upon the tan man. The tan man fell to the ground before Sai dispelled the ink bird he was ridding to stand right in front of the tan man. Sai pulled out his tanto as the four armed man threw a shuriken at the boy. Sai dodged by moving to the side, but when he noticed that the fingers on the hand that threw the shuriken moved around in a strange way he took on a curious look.

Sai all of a sudden felt something tackle him to the ground before he felt something else whiz over his head that sounded like a giant shuriken. Sai looked up to see that it was Naruto that tackled him. "Rat you need to be more careful. This teme has chakra threads equipped to his shuriken," said Naruto as he pointed at the four armed tan man, holding both his shuriken, who was now clutching his head.

"shutupshutupshutupshutup!" screamed the tan man as he continued to clutch his head causing Naruto and Sai to look at the man curiously. Neither of them could see the man's face because of the shadows of the trees blocking most of the moonlight, only leaving small patches of light in the dark forest. "AAAAaaaaahhhh!" screamed the man before he ran away from Naruto and Sai.

The two boys were both thinking the same thing "_This guy is out of his mind._" Naruto and Sai followed the man through the forestry. Instead of taking to the trees, the man was traversing on foot; he staggered through the forest, bumping into trees and bushes as he made his way to a clearing. Just before the man entered a clearing that was showered in moonlight, the two extra appendages receded back into the man's back. As soon as the man stepped into the clearing, the two boys finally got a good look at their target and noticed that this man had a lot more muscle than they thought he did. No, muscle wouldn't be the right word; it looked more like he was covered in tumors.

The boys went wide-eyed when they saw two faces attached to the back of the man. One face was that of a scarred man with a horizontal scar over his nose while the other was a light skinned man with silver hair. The tan man was now on his knees clutching his face while Naruto and Sai jumped out of the forestry to stand right behind the four armed man. The man sensed them and rose to his feet before he turned around. Then he slowly removed his hands to reveal the face of Tobio, without any pupils or irises. Upon closer inspection his face was completely tan and covered in thick veins.

**3 hours earlier**

Mizuki moved his head around "_hmm… it seems that my head is the only thing I can move," _thought the traitorous chunin. Tobio looked up at Iruka and nodded, but stopped when Mizuki spoke up "If you go back everyone will know you stole the forbidden scroll. You asked earlier why I did what I did, correct? Well here's my answer, this damn village won't let me advance pass the rank of chunin because of something that happened a few years back on one of my missions," said Mizuki as he smirked when he noticed that Tobio didn't leave yet.

"Don't listen to him, just go and get help!" shouted Iruka before he coughed up some more blood "_This isn't good, when I try to talk it only lessens my control over the barrier._"

Mizuki enraged Iruka by speaking again "My allies in Iwa said they'd grant me the rank of Jonin and give me a hefty stipend if I were to bring them the forbidden scroll and abandon Konoha. Think of your options kid if you were to do what Iruka said, it's not like the Hokage will promote you to genin just like that. Hell he'd probably get suspended or thrown in prison. If he let something like letting you steal the forbidden scroll go without any sort of punishment it'd make him look like a weak leader; after all you're just as big a part of this as me. Now if you were to help me then we can go to Iwa together. Think of it? They'd do more than just simply promote you to genin. They'd hale you as a hero and throw their money and daughters at you."

"Shut up *cough cough* Mizuki. Kid don't *cough* listen to him. He doesn't know… what he's talking about. *Cough cough cough* he tried to… kill you not even five minutes ago," said Iruka as he coughed up blood throughout his speech and even started to look a little pale.

Mizuki smirked "_It doesn't look like he'll last much longer_" Mizuki looked at the boy "Tobio, I held nothing against you. Any kid would have worked for me, but I was personally hoping that some little whiskered demon would fail his genin exam. I was probably taking out my frustration for not being able to kill him out on you. I'm sorry for what I did, but in life sometimes you need to step on others to succeed. I know you want to succeed and not become a loser so join me and together we'll go to Iwa after we finish this half dead trash," said Mizuki as he moved his head towards Iruka.

Tobio pulled out a kunai from his pouch and limped over to Iruka and Mizuki causing the later to smirk. "Tobio, stop this… just turn around and get help ***cough***," said Iruka but this cough shot out more blood than all the others causing the scarred chunin to drop to one knee. Iruka looked up at the 12 year old as he stopped right outside of the barrier.

"Finish off this half dead fool and we'll get going to Iwa!" screamed Mizuki before he erupted in laughter. Mizuki's laughter was short lived as Tobio stabbed the silver haired man causing both Iruka and Mizuki to go wide eyed. Iruka dropped the barrier and watched as Mizuki fell to the ground dying. Mizuki chuckled a little "Well at least you've got more guts than that dumbass Iruka."

Iruka was surprised and looked at the boy "Don't worry Tobio, it was your first kill and he di-" Iruka was cut off as a kunai pierced his neck and tore out his throat. Iruka fell to the ground… dead.

Mizuki laughed hard "You're really surprise me you know that. You actually granted one of my final wishes."

Tobio smiled darkly "In life sometimes you need to step on others to succeed."

Mizuki halted his laughter "I like your ruthlessness, but you're not too bright. How in the flying fuck are you going to get to Iwa? You have genin skill at best and you won't even be able to get out of the village undetected. If you kept me alive it could have ensured that we'd be able to leave Konoha at a later date, the next time I'd have a mission outside of the… village," said Mizuki in a weak voice before he went silent. Tobio waved his hand in front of the chunin's face and upon seeing no reaction the preteen shut the man's eyes.

Tobio dragged Iruka's body next to Mizuki's and went through some hand seals "Ninja Art: Casualty Puppet!" screamed the ponytail bearer as his body began to morph. Throughout the forest noises of flesh and bone being torn could be heard. After a few minutes Tobio stood alone in the forest, without the corpses, in an adult sized body with tan skin. Tobio chuckled "_I now have access to all their knowledge and Jutsu. Interesting, it seems like Umino-san was a member of the barrier division and knows how to get out of the village undetected._"

Tobio moved to pick up the scroll before he felt a sharp pain coming from his back "Don't do this Tobio there is still time to turn back." Tobio looked around trying to figure out who was speaking before he heard another voice

"Tobio you've gone too far to turn back now. You might as well go all the way," said a voice that Tobio immediately recognized.

"Mizuki? Then that other voice must have been Iruka.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End

A little darker than my previous chapters, but I don't think this is dark enough for me to bump it up to an M rated fic. Next chap will be Naruto and Sai vs. Tobio.

This mission is taking me longer than I thought it would. I may not get to Tenten becoming aware of her bloodline as quick as I thought I would.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Yes I'm aware that Vacuum Sword is technically not one of Danzo's Jutsu, but since it is a wind Jutsu, has Vacuum in its name, gives Naruto a kenjutsu attack and I like it; I'm adding this jutsu to Naruto's moveset.**

**Notes: **

**To save your time Vacuum sword, not to be confused with vacuum blade, was a jutsu used in the movie blood prison by some jonin.**

**Don't remember if I've said this before, but the lightning seal can be used multiple times.**

**Chapter 15**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The two boys stared at their former team mate and took in his features. He had tan skin; bulging tumors sticking out of his body, thick veins, completely white eyes, no shirt and his pants barely fit him. Hanging off of his waist was a storage scroll that the two boys assumed held the forbidden scroll.

Naruto and Sai looked at the abomination in front of them with the former being in shock. Tobio could not see either of them through their masks, but could tell the one with the hawk mask was stunned. Tobio smiled and dashed at Naruto. Sai noticed the blond's shock as well and acted fast by throwing a barrage of shuriken at the Tan creature in front of him. Tobio quickly jumped backwards to a safe distance away from the two ROOT agents as the shuriken hit the floor. "Hawk, snap out of it! I don't know what happened to him and quite frankly I don't care. We have a mission in front of us and we can't let anything slow us down. If we hesitate for even a moment it can spell death for us," said Sai before Naurto nodded and gripped his sword.

Tobio roared as the face of the light skinned man on his back grew a torso and arms, but the second body stopped growing out of Tobio when it reached the man's waist. The white-haired man was equipped with the two giant shuriken from earlier and threw one of them at the duo. Naruto and Sai dodged in opposite directions as the shuriken came between them before the hand that threw the shuriken pulled on some chakra strings to bring the giant shuriken circling back to the blone. Naruto immediately jumped upwards and saw Tobio smirk before noticing that the second shuriken was not in his hand. After seeing a shadow growing larger above him the blond quickly placed his sword above him in a horizontal guard with his second hand placed on the flat of his blade.

The shuriken connected with the sword and sent the blond slightly tilted his blade to redirect the shuriken successfully. Tobio grunted and pulled on some chakra strings to bring both of his shuriken back to him to use them to block an incoming tanto strike from Sai. A fifth arm grew out of Tobio and made a move to grab Sai by the neck, but the black haired boy was quick enough to disengage with the target and jump backwards. "Hawk, attacking him close range is dangerous since he can grow extra limbs whenever he wants too," said Sai before he whipped out his blank scroll and brush.

Tobio started to dash at the masked boy before the other masked boy screamed "Wind style: Vacuum Sword!" which caused Tobio to jump upwards to dodge an arc shaped blade of wind chakra. Sai drew several small birds that quickly swarmed Tobio as soon as he landed back on the ground. As Tobio was dispelling the ink birds with the help of his Mizuki limbs, the Iruka body grew out of his back all the way up the waist and started helping with the bird dispersal. After the birds were gone, The Mizuki body transferred ownership of the two giant shuriken over to Tobio before Sai sent two giant ink lions at Tobio.

The Iruka and Mizuki bodies dispersed the lions easily with taijutsu punches while Tobio turned to Naruto "Your chakra? It feels familiar. You're the demon aren't you, the one that attacked Konoha 12 years ago? Yes, I can see it in Iruka's memories, that's the reason why everyone hated you isn't that right… Naruto Uzumaki!" screamed Tobio before Naruto fired off another vacuum sword. Tobio avoided the attack by phasing into the ground.

With Tobio out of sight and somewhere in the ground Naruto stabbed his sword into the earth and activated his lightning seal, sending a large amount of lightning chakra into it. A scream could be heard from the ground and soon enough Tobio resurfaced on his hands and knees. Sai's brush had run dry so the black haired boy used this opportunity to take out a new vile, one that he only used sparingly, before Tobio suddenly dashed at Naruto.

Sai started sending more ink animals at Tobio, but those were once again dispersed by Mizuki and Iruka. When Tobio was upon the blond he swung both his shuriken downwards causing the blond to bring his sword upwards to block. As the two struggled with each other and the two corpse puppets struggled with Sai's ink animals, Tobio began to speak "Die Monster! Killing you is the only thing that Mizuki and Iruka will agree on. Maybe I should thank you; those two were driving me insane!"

Tobio began to push harder and soon enough Naruto was on one knee. The blond once again activated his lightning seal, causing Tobio's shuriken to conduct the electricity and shocked the boy. "AAaahhh!" screamed Tobio for a good 20 seconds before the flow of electricity finally halted. Surprisingly, Tobio was still standing and staggered backwards, away from Naruto before he noticed that his corpse puppets were fried badly. Tobio looked on the ground and noticed that the ink was odd "_Silver ink? Damn it, my corpse puppets must have been covered in the stuff before I took the shock from that damn sword!_" thought Tobio as he remembered the conductivity of silver. With no other choice Tobio let the corpse puppets recede back into his body before he was tackled by an Ink lion; Tobio was pinned to the ground before he once again phased into the ground.

Naruto smirked "Didn't learn your lesson the last time huh?" asked the blond before he once again stuck his blade into the earth and activated the lightning seal. This time however, Tobio didn't scream or resurface. Naruto was confused for a bit before he went wide-eyed "_He's not going for me this time," _thought the blond before he turned to his partner "Rat, watch out!" screamed the blond before Tobio resurfaced behind the black haired ROOT.

Sai looked backwards before Tobio swung his Shuriken in a diagonal angle, cutting Sai's back. Blood splattered on the grass and hung off of the shuriken as Sai let out a scream and dropped to his knees. "Rrrraaaaattt!" screamed Naruto as Tobio did a horizontal slash that Sai avoided by letting himself fall face down on the ground. With his sword still stuck in the ground, Naruto went through some hand seals "Wind Style: Vacuum sphere!" screamed the blond before transparent beams shot out of his mouth. Tobio raised his shuriken to try to swing at the boy again, but got knocked back by the force of Naruto's Vacuum sphere.

Naruto pulled his blade out of the ground and rushed at Tobio with great speed. The blond jumped into the air and swung down only for the abomination to block with his shuriken. Before Naruto could activate the lightning seal again, Tobio shifted to the side and pulled back his shuriken leaving Naruto's blade hanging in the air. Tobio now at Naruto's side swung the shuriken at the blond only for Naruto to quickly bring the sword up and block the incoming attack. After Naruto blocked the attack he heard a crack, but couldn't stop to think about it in the midst of close range combat.

Sai's ink lion, from earlier, picked up its master and carried him off into the forestry on its back while Naruto and Tobio were engaging each other. Tobio swung at the blonde's head only for Naruto to duck "You know something, Naruto," said Tobio as he blocked his opponent's swing with his shuriken. "None of the academy instructors cared for you," continued Tobio as he cut Naruto's check with one of the giant shuriken before Naruto kicked Tobio in the abdomen causing him to stagger backwards. Naruto dashed forward, but stopped when he heard the next words that came out of Tobio's mouth "Not even Aoba."

After seeing the boy pause, Tobio let a grin take hold of his face. The adult sized 12 year old threw a giant shuriken at the blond only for it to get deflected by Naruto's sword before the blond heard yet another crack, but didn't mind it. "That's a lie!" screamed the blond making Tobio laugh. "_Damn it, I just let him confirm that I am who he thinks I am,_" thought the blond before Tobio pulled back his shuriken using the chakra threads.

"I can see it in Iruka and Mizuki's memories, they were Academy Instructors," said Tobio as he dashed forward, swinging the giant shuriken at the blond only for Naruto to once again block. "When they were in the teacher's lounge, Aoba used to go on and on about how much he hated you!" screamed Tobio before he infused both his shuriken with earth chakra before blocking another one of Naruto's attacks. "When asked why he tried to help you so much, his answer was simply because it was his job," said Tobio as he began to laugh before he swung horizontally with both shuriken and all his strength at the blond. Naruto blocked the incoming attack, but he was sent flying off to the side.

Tobio tossed one of the shuriken after Naruto while the blond was sailing through the air. Naruto saw the incoming shuriken flying at him, at greater speeds than he was flying. Naruto acted fast by sticking his sword into the ground and using it to swing himself just far enough to avoid the shuriken. Just as Naruto narrowly avoided the projectile, his sword snapped in two causing the blond to fly into the ground.

Naruto looked at Tobio and noticed his fingers were moving around before the blond rolled to the side and avoided the returning shuriken. "hmph, no sword, what are you going to do now DEMON!? " screamed Tobio as he phased back into the earth.

Naruto placed the remainder of his sword on his belt and ran through some hand seals "Wind Style: Stream!" shouted the blond as he aimed the move at the ground causing dirt to get kicked up and making himself fly high up into the air.

Tobio who was still underground thought "_Does he think that would be enough to flush me out? What an idiot."_

Naruto, who had just stopped his 'Wind Style: Stream' and was now falling back to the ground, ran through some more hand seals "Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!" shouted the blond before he began moving his head in several directions. Large blades of wind tore through the ground and upturned the entire area, revealing Tobio.

The angered Tobio ran straight to where Naruto was landing as the blond pulled out his broken sword. "What are you going to do with that!?" screamed Tobio before he began laughing.

Naruto blew some wind chakra onto the blade and mentally said "Wind Style: Vacuum blade" as wind chakra extended the range of his once whole sword. As soon as Naruto landed on the ground, Tobio swung at him only to be blocked by the blade of wind chakra. Soon after the two shinobi jumped backwards away from each other before Naruto Jumped upwards and swung down at Tobio.

Tobio put both his earth enhanced shuriken upwards in an 'X' to attempt to block the incoming attack, but just before Naruto connected the blonde activated his lightning seal, which was still on the half of the sword that he was using. The electricity enveloped the blade changing it from a sword of wind chakra into a blade of lightning chakra. The new lightning sword tore through the earth enhanced shuriken and sliced Tobio's head straight down the middle. Blood sprayed out of the open wound splattering on the blond Jinchuriki.

Tobio dropped down to his knees before falling down to the ground on his side. Naruto watched as a pool of blood encircled the head of his former classmate. Naruto snorted "_I think I see why Danzo used to see emotions as weak. This stuff isn't easy to deal with it,"_ thought the blond before he removed the scroll strapped onto Tobio's waist. Naruto confirmed that it was the forbidden scroll sealed inside of it when he unsealed the storage scroll. Naruto let out a sigh of relief, but just before he could reseal it some people jumped in front of him.

"That was an amazing battle. Now hand over the scroll and we don't have to kill your little friend here un," said a blond teen wearing an Iwa forehead protector as he gestured to a tied up Sai being held captive with a kunai at his neck by a girl with short black hair. Naruto felt something crawl on him "Don't try anything stupid now or…" the blond teenager threw something on the ground in front of him.

The Jinchuriki watched as a white spider crawled on the ground before it exploded. Naruto went wide-eyed when he realized what's crawling on him right now. "How do I know you just won't kill me anyway?" asked Naruto as he looked up at the older blond.

"I guess you don't. You'll have to take my word for it, un," said the smirking Iwa ninja as he stared down at Naruto.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End

I'm still trying to get the hang of battles. Can anyone give me tips or ways to improve or do you think their good the way they are?

Before anyone asks me why I stated in this chap that Iruka wanted to see Naruto dead, I'm just going to say this. In the cannon it was stated that Iruka used to hate Naruto, but grew to care for him after he became his teacher and in my fic that last thing never happened.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: My Deidara will be a little different than the canon Deidara, as in having a few extra personality traits.**

**Q/A: **

**Why did I let Danzo send out Naruto and Sai? Think of it as an error in judgment thanks to the pride in Naruto's and Sai's abilities that he acquired after being reacquainted with his emotions. **

**Why did I only send 2 ROOT subordinates after the forbidden scroll? Now that one is actually an error of the author. It's my first fic and I'm still learning.**

**Deidara is still an Iwa shinobi? I like to think of it as a butterfly effect. Itachi never killed the uchiha clan so he never joined Akatsuki. Itachi never being in Akatsuki means that he never used his sharingan to convince Deidara to join Akatsuki. Another butterfly effect that I'm sure all of you know by now is Orochimaru never left Akatsuki meaning I've got a bunch of characters I can place wherever I want since he never created Oto. There are more complicated butterfly effects further down the road. You didn't think I was going to reveal all of the changes to this AU on the first chap, did you? Those changes will lead to other changes, which will lead to more changes.**

**Why did Naruto and Sai appear to be 'weak' when facing Tobio? Three part answer.**

**1) Naruto never went through emotional conditioning so he has trouble keeping his emotions in check. This affected him in combat along with the fact that it was his first real mission. So he lacks field experience as well. I don't want him to be too far ahead of Shikamaru and Tenten.**

**2) As for Sai… he got blindsided. Mizuki knew the silent killing technique and since I gave Tobio all of Mizuki's abilities it gave him a way to take out Sai easily. The reason I didn't have him shout it was because I don't remember anyone shouting silent killing technique when they use it and if they did that would just defeat the point of the attack. I could have probably described it better though…**

**3) I like to see a bit of struggle in combat since a one sided fight is boring and it's not too farfetched to make Tobio be a challenge to them since he has three chakra networks combined into one, the combined skills of two experienced chunin and the physical changes that comes with casualty puppet.**

**Chapter 16**

Naruto felt the spider climb to the back of his neck "_Damn it, what are Iwa shinobi doing here anyway? We're still in the land of fire,"_ thought the Uzumaki as he sealed the scroll back into the storage seal before he took a look at the unconscious Sai. Naruto's eyes widened when he noticed something about his partner's bindings "_Damn it, they look like they're made of the same material as the spider; meaning that this teme will kill us either way._" Naruto glared at the blond Iwa shinobi in front of him "_I've got to buy some time. Maybe, the backup that Danzo-sensei sent will arrive soon. I hope they do because I'd sooner destroy myself with the scroll than let Iwa get a hold of it._" Naruto thought for a little bit before he got an idea "_What's the reason they're keeping me alive now anyway? They could just kill Sai and I then take the scroll. Either there are more requirements for his explosions to work or he's the type that wants to give us false hope."_

"Good now hand it over," said the blond Iwa nin as his hand reached out.

"_Well here goes nothing,"_ thought the blond Jinchuriki before he spoke "What are Iwa shinobi doing here? It can't be a coincidence that you came here when and knew about the forbidden scroll," asked Naruto as he clutched onto the storage scroll.

"We're not telling you anything!" screamed the black haired girl while gripping her kunai more tightly.

"Now Now Kurotsuchi, that's rude he did ask a question after all, un," said the blond Iwa nin with a smirk.

"But Deidara-nii…" said Kurotsuchi before Deidara held up his hand signaling her to be quiet.

Deidara now turned back to Naruto "Well if you must know it's thanks to the art of one of our villages Kunoichi."

"Art?" asked Naurto with strong curiosity in his voice.

Deidara smiled "Yep, art…" said Deidara as he whipped out a large map that had several glowing markers on it "… the art of fuinjutsu."

"_fuinjutsu? So Iwa has a fuinjutsu master of their very own, now. I hope Sai's radio seal is still active because I know they wouldn't tell me this much info if they were planning to keep me alive and I at least want to get some info back to Danzo-sensei," _thought Naruto before he spoke up again "Wow that looks amazing what does it do?" asked Naruto with sparkles in his eyes that can be seen through the ROOT mask

"Deidara-nii, why are you answering his questions? Just take the scroll from him so we can go," said Kurotsuchi before Deidara grew a tick mark and glared at her.

"Damn it, Kurotsuchi how can you say that when this boy… no, this man has such admiration for art! It wouldn't be fair to let a fellow admirer of art di…d… depart without having his curiosity sated! Un," screamed Deidara as Nartuo and Kurotsuchi sweat dropped.

"What happened to art is an explosion!?" Kurotsuchi screamed at her blond companion.

Deidara closed his eyes and smiled smugly "I appreciate art in all forms. Besides he's already witnessed my art so it's only fair that he gets to see Uzumaki's art too. un," said the blond as he nodded his head.

"_Uzumaki? So Iwa has an Uzumaki too_," thought Naruto before Deidara cleared his throat.

"Anyway, my good man, before I was rudely interrupted," said Deidara as he glared at Kurotsuchi. "This map is part of a two part tracking seal. This first part is the target seal which was placed on that Mizuki guy a few months back when he agreed to steal Konoha's forbidden scroll," said Deidara as he pointed to Tobio.

Naruto glanced at Tobio's body before thinking a bit "_Mizuki? That's one of the names Tobio called those men that are stuck in his back. I see it must have been Mizuki that plotted to steal the scroll,"_ thought Naruto as he turned back to Deidara "What's the other part of the seal do Deidara-sensei?"

"Deidara-sensei? Hmm, I like the sound of that, un," said Deidara as Kurotsuchi sighed. "Well this map is the second part of the seal also known as the locator seal. The map keeps track of anyone that has the target seal on them. Every single one of our spies amongst the elemental nations have the target seal on them."

"_I've got to keep him talking," _thought the blond before he adopted an excited face "Th-th-that's amazing!" screamed Naruto "I've never thought of creating a seal like that, this Uzumaki must be very old and wise to invent something so amazing," said Naruto as he now took a personal interest in this tracking seal.

Deidara was about to answer before Kurotsuchi spoke up "Deidara-nii you're giving too much information," said Kurotsuchi as Deidara finally realized that the ANBU before him was just pumping him for information.

Deidara cleared his throat and rolled up the map "I think I've answered enough of your questions. Now it's your turn to answer mine," said the blond Iwa nin causing Naruto to grunt. "Okay what village are you guys from? My first guess would be Konoha, but I think they would send more than just two operatives to retrieve their scroll. So my conclusion is you two must be spies for another village that intercepted Mizuki on his way to Iwa."

Naruto looked over at the dead Tobio "_I see; he must have never met Mizuki in person. So, he's just assuming that Tobio is Mizuki._"

When Naruto didn't respond, Deidara smirked "You know what, don't answer. Instead I want you to remove your mask or else Kurotsuchi will kill your partner," said Deidara causing Naruto to widen his eyes.

Kurotsuchi made a shallow cut on Sai's throat causing Naruto to tighten his hand around the storage scroll before looking back at Deidara "_This guy is smarter than I thought. I could easily lie about what village I came from, but if he examines my facial features he can pinpoint where I came from that way. Well… I don't see any another choice,_" thought Naruto as he removed his black hood and then his mask revealing his blond hair, tan skin and blue eyes.

Kurotsuchi's eyes widened "He looks just like the yellow flash! I bet he's one of his brats!" she screamed.

Deidara looked at her "Now don't jump to conclusions Kurotsuchi. As you remember the yellow flash had no heirs. Just because he has blond hair doesn't mean that they are related. Besides why would Konoha put the son of their beloved Yondaime in the ROOT program? That just doesn't make any sense at all. Konoha is a village that praises its heroes and carves their faces into the side of a mountain. There's no way they would take the son of its most favored hero and put him in something as dangerous as ANBU at this age," said Deidara before looking at Naruto "hmm, well he's obviously not from Iwa and he can't be from Kiri due to the number of wind Jutsu we saw him use. His skin tone says that he can't be from Kumo and he can't be from any of the minor villages since they don't have any ANBU. So, this leaves either Konoha or Suna."

"He can't be from Suna because their ANBU wear brown flak jackets," said Kurotsuchi causing Deidara to look at her.

Naruto started sweating before Deidara sighed and knocked the rolled up scroll two times against his head "Yes that is a possibility, but his uniform doesn't exactly look like a Konoha ANBU's either," said Deidara as Naruto let out a mental sigh of relief for Danzo's choice in uniform. "Kurotsuchi remove the other guy's mask. We'll find out what village they're from that way," said Deidara causing Naruto to smirk.

Kurotsuchi grabbed Sai's mask and attempted to pull it off, but to her surprise both her and Sai were electrocuted while Naruto snickered. "_ROOT is always finding new uses for my lightning seal. One of the most recent ones is to rig the masks with the seal so when someone besides the mask wearer tries to remove it they get electrocuted. The only drawback is that it still shocks the ROOT agent,"_ thought Naruto as Kurotsuchi finally dropped Sai and backed away.

Deidara went wide eyed "What was that!? It just destroyed my art!" Deidara screamed in tears.

"_Destroyed his art? Wait he calls his explosions art so maybe lightning element takes away the ability for the explosions to happen. So this clay must have earth chakra in it," _thought Naruto before he started to formulate a plan in his head while Deidara was still in shock over what happened to his clay rope._ "Well… it's crazy and I'm basing all of this off of a hunch, but worth a shot. Worst case scenario the forbidden scroll, Sai and I all blow up._" Naruto nodded to himself and grabbed the blade of his broken sword and activated his lightning seal causing Deidara to look at him.

"MY ART!" screamed Deidara as he dropped the map before throwing some more spiders at Naruto and instantly exploded. Naruto jumped back just in time to avoid the spiders. Both Deidara and Kurotsuchi were looking at the dust cloud created by Deidara's explosion before a kunai flew out of it and landed right in front of the two Iwa nin. Both of them went wide eyed when they noticed a tag attached to the kunai and jumped backwards while looking at the kunai. The both of them expected an explosion, but what they got was a blinding light with a loud bang that took away their senses of sight and hearing.

Naruto had his ears covered when the explosion happened so while Deidara and Kurotsuchi were stunned he grabbed the forbidden scroll, the map and Sai. Deidara's vision was just coming back, but he still couldn't hear anything. After looking around the Iwa shinobi spotted Naruto helping up his fellow ROOT agent and he began molding more clay to throw, but to his surprise he saw the younger blond run through some hand seals before letting out a stream of wind from his mouth that kicked up all the dirt in the area causing Deidara to lose sight of his opponents.

Naruto ran away in the northwest direction hoping to run into the backup that Danzo was sending while Deidara and Kurotsuchi stayed in the dirt cloud thinking that Naruto and his partner were waiting for a chance to strike them. After a while the dust cloud began to settle and the two Iwa shinobi spotted a figure slowly approaching them from the dust cloud. Deidara smirked and threw some of his clay birds at the figure only to be surprised when the figure grew a tail that shielded him from the explosion. The next thing the blond Iwa-nin knew was that the figure closed in on him and received a harsh punch to the face that sent him flying through the air. As soon as Deidara fell to the ground, the blond looked up to see a bearded man with red hair standing over him. The bearded man picked up Deidara by the scruff of his shirt before his mouth started flapping. Deidara of course couldn't hear him because he was still under the effects of the flash seal. "Roshi-sensei!? Wait... I… I can explain! Un," screamed Deidara before he received another punch to the face.

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Naruto was running through the forest with Sai in his arms, the map in his mouth and the storage scroll containing the forbidden scroll in his pocket. Soon Naruto was starting to feel weary and he noticed that Sai was burning up. "_Shit Toibio-teme must have poisoned his shuriken. Looks like Shikamaru was right; it is troublesome to not have a medical nin on a squad,_" Naruto thought as he slowed down. Naruto continued to run across the forest until he finally collapsed in the middle of the woods and his world went dark and it started to rain.

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Hours later

Roshi was standing in front of two of his students together with his third student, Akatsuchi, in the rain. "I'm ashamed of the both of you. You two went against my orders, with the map, leaving me and Akatsuchi stranded in unfamiliar territory and without a way to get in contact with you. Then after you arrived you saw that gaki over there," said Roshi as he pointed to Tobio "Get killed by some other gaki that Kurotsuchi says looks like the yellow flash?" asked Roshi making Deidara and Kurotsuchi nod. "After capturing this yellow flash look alike and his companion you went ahead and told him how we keep track of our spy network before both of them escaped together with the map and Konoha's forbidden scroll?"

"It was Deidara-nii's fault, I said that we should just take the scroll and go so he could have his little fun by blowing both of them up anyway," said Kurotsuchi while pointing at Deidara making the blond sweat.

Roshi brought his head down to meet Kurotsuchi at eye level "You still went against my orders and I will not tolerate insubordination," said Roshi in an even tone making Kurotsuchi hang her head down in shame. "We can't even track the Gaki now because of the rain! You two have compromised the spy network of Iwagakure. What do you have to say for yourselves!? You better speak now because I'm not going to give you another chance to speak until we return to the village," said an angry Roshi making his two students flinch.

Deidara spoke up "I-I-It's not a complete loss Roshi-sensei. I managed to snatch a scroll from the blond kid's partner when I was tying him up. There's a chance that it contains something valuable. Un." Roshi raised an eyebrow as Deidara held out a storage scroll. Roshi looked at the scroll then Deidara with a nervous smile on his face before he snatched the scroll from his blond student.

Roshi placed the scroll on the ground and unsealed it. Everyone was surprised to see various fuinjutsu seals that none of them have never seen before within the storage scroll causing Roshi to smile "It seems that you two aren't completely worthless after all," said Roshi as Deidara and Kurotsuchi sighed in relief "But this doesn't mean you're off the hook either," said Roshi making his two students stiff.

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End

I admit that I'm a bit nervous about posting this chapter since I don't think I portrayed Deidara correctly. Anyway, now that I have over 40,000 words, my updates will start to become less frequent from now on. I'll still update frequently, just don't expect me to update every day or every other day anymore.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: after making some changes to my outline because of something some of my reviewers pointed out in the last chapter, I noticed something that I completely overlooked and conflicts with something I have planned for later on. I hate to do this when I'm this far in my story, but I need to add one more thing to the list of changes in chapter 1 so my story can make a bit more sense later on. Hopefully, I didn't overlook anything else.**

**Change: Anko does not have a curse mark.**

**Chapter 17:**

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**Next morning at Konoha Hospital**

Naruto was asleep in a hospital bed before the rays of sunlight shot through the window and onto his face, waking the boy. The blond sat up and felt some sheets roll off of him before he brought his hand up to his head. Naruto looked around the room and saw an unconscious Sai in a nearby bed "Awake already, Naruto-kun?" said a familiar voice causing Naruto to look in the direction the voice came from.

"Kabuto?" asked the blond as he looked at the silver haired teenager sitting in a chair.

Kabuto smiled "There are security seals in place right now so we can talk about anything at the moment," said Kabuto as Naruto nodded "You two should count yourselves lucky that Fu and Torune were able to find you during the rainfall," said Kabuto as he stood up and walked over to his counter and picked up a syringe. "Both of you were poisoned, but thankfully it wasn't something foreign and I was able to come up with an antidote," finished Kabuto as he threw the needle away in a disposal bin. "Your Immune system is most impressive Naruto-kun, it's only been about ten minutes since I administered the antidote and you're already awake." Naruto looked at Sai with a bit of worry on his face "No need to worry about him, he'll be up and about in a day or two, he just needs bed rest and time to heal his wounds," said Kabuto as Naruto let out a sigh of relief and looked down at his hands.

Naruto's eyes widened and shot a look at Kabuto "What about the forbidden scroll and the map?" asked Naruto making Kabuto put on a serious face and adjusted his glasses while his eyes were hidden under a glare of light.

Kabuto's continued to stare at Naruto for awhile causing the blond to gulp and prepare for some bad news. Kabuto's serious face disappeared and was replaced by a smiling one before he gave a thumbs up "Your mission was a success. They're safe at the base with Danzo-sama; Fu and Torune took them to him after they brought you here," said the smiling Kabuto causing Naruto to take on an irritated look.

Kabuto laughed at his expression before Naruto asked another question "Did they take the scroll from Sai containing this month's seal quota as well?"

Kabuto looked at the boy before his eyes widened in horror "Naruto-kun… Sai didn't have that scroll with him when he was found," said Kabuto before Naruto took on a horrified face of his own.

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**Earlier; in the forest**

In the rain, Roshi and his team were smiling at the fuinjutsu seals lying in front of them before the bearded Jonin reached out his hand to grab one. Before Roshi even laid a finger on them he started to hear crackling coming from the fuinjutsu tags making him go wide-eyed. Soon after that some of the seals seamed to activate and small bolts of lightning started arcing between the tags making the Jonin and his squad jump backwards before all the tags were completely enveloped in lightning.

Roshi and his team stood there and watched the patch of lightning dance for a minute before it completely disappeared. The red haired man slowly walked back towards the giant black square on the ground that was once filled with uncut fuinjutsu tags. Roshi dropped to his knees and ran his fingers over the black square and looked at his hand that was now covered in ashes. As if Nature was laughing at his misfortune, the rainfall thickened at that very moment.

Roshi began glowing red before he transformed into a giant red monkey with four tails and roared. The giant monkey turned his gaze over to Deidara and Kurotsuchi causing the two to hold onto each other as Akatsuchi ran away.

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**Present; in Konoha Hospital **

Naruto put his hands on his head and screamed "I've got to make them all over again!"

"Shouldn't you be worried that someone else may have found the seals?" asked Kabuto making Naruto look at him oddly.

"Why should I be worried about that? I set it up so that if anyone besides me, you or Danzo-sensei opened it all of the lightning seals would go off at the same time and fry up all the fuinjutsu tags," said the blond as if it was obvious making Kabuto sigh. Naruto laughed for a little bit before he took on yet another fearful face, looking at least ten times more scared than he was earlier."No," whispered the blond in a quiet voice with his eyes wide.

Kabuto looked at the blond nervously "What's wrong?" asked the silver haired teen.

"I-I-I," said the blond as he continued to stutter causing Kabuto to gulp.

"You?"

"I forgot about Tenten!" screamed Naruto making Kabuto facepalm.

"I thought it was something serious," said Kabuto making Naruto glare at him.

"This **is **serious," said Naruto as he pulled his covers off of his legs. "I told her to meet me last night, but I completely forgot with the sudden mission. She's probably going to kill me," said Naruto as he quickly changed out of the hospital clothes and into his normal outfit.

Naruto made a dash for the door before Kabuto grabbed the blond by his hood. "Sorry Naruto-kun, but my orders were to bring you to Danzo-sama once you awoke. He still needs a report from one of you and since Sai is still unconscious, that someone is you," said Kabuto as he made a hand seal and deactivated the security seals in the room before Kabuto dragged the boy out into the hallway by the hood. When they were out in the hall the silver haired teen let go of the blond's hood and the two of them walked out of the hospital together.

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**Later at the ROOT base**

Naruto was kneeling down on one knee in front of Danzo, who was sitting down in his chair. The old war hawk looked at his apprentice "I cut off my radio seal when you two engaged the target in combat. I didn't want to tip off your adversary that backup was on the way. So, I need you to fill me in on everything that happened from when you first made contact," said Danzo as Naruto began the tale.

**Twenty minutes later**

Naruto had just finished telling Danzo about his encounter with Tobio. Danzo sighed and sat back in his chair "The jutsu you witnessed sounds like the Casualty Puppet; it was developed by one of my former subordinates, Orochimaru. The jutsu allows the user to absorb the corpse of a recently dead shinobi. Once absorbed, the user gains all the strength, knowledge and Jutsu that the corpse had when it was alive. From what you described it sounded like Tobio believed that the corpse puppets, Iruka and Mizuki, were talking to him?" asked Danzo.

Naruto looked up "Hai, Sensei."

"That is not how that jutsu works. What I believe is that those were actually secondary personalities created from a mixture of the side-effect of using that jutsu along with the memories he absorbed from his victims."

"Side-effect?"

Danzo nodded "Yes, that jutsu warps the mind of the user which is why it was labeled as a Kinjutsu. Well that and most of the council saw it as immoral," said Danzo making Naruto nod "_I'm glad that Iruka didn't betray this village after all, but it's still painful that we lost a shinobi that loyal to our village," _thought Danzo before he began to speak again "During your battle, you were able to hit him with the vacuum sphere, correct?" Naruto nodded making Danzo sigh "If that's true then why didn't your attack tear through him, I know I trained you to be at least Jonin level in Kenjutsu, wind element jutsu and fuinjutsu while being high chunin level in everything else I've trained you in."

Naruto looked down "Sorry, Danzo-sensei, I let my control over wind chakra falter when I became angry when Sai got taken down. My spheres weren't even strong enough to cut through his skin," said Naruto with shame in his voice.

Danzo looked down at Naruto "You also said you froze, when you saw what you were up against at the beginning of the confrontation, correct?" asked Danzo making Naruto sigh before nodding in agreement. "Then when he spoke of Aoba, you let your kenjutsu ability falter as well." Naruto flinched before nodding again. Danzo sighed and Naruto was prepared to receive a scolding from his sensei "Naruto… don't blame yourself for what happened during the mission. If anyone is at fault it's me," said Danzo making Naruto look at the man curiously. "The important thing is that your mission was successful and both of you came back in one piece."

"What do you mean sensei? I almost screwed up the mission so many times during the..."

Danzo raised his hand to signal the boy to be quiet "Like I said, the important thing is that you didn't 'screw up' the mission and both of you came back alive. As for the brushes of death you had during the mission that was my fault for sending you and Sai alone to face an unknown opponent especially when you've had no real field experience until now." Danzo stood up from his chair and began walking to a bookshelf "The truth of the matter is that I was blinded by the pride I had gained from teaching you everything you knew. Don't take this the wrong way Naruto, but I sent you on a mission that you were simply not ready for. You had the skills, you just lacked the experience and lacked the knowledge of how to harness your emotions," said Danzo as Naruto looked down again at the ground feeling disappointed that he let Danzo down.

Danzo picked up a picture form the bookshelf and looked at it. The picture depicted a 12 year old Danzo, sulking after he nearly failed his first serious mission, together with his teammates, Uchiha Kagami and Akimichi Torifu. Danzo looked at his apprentice "_Naruto, you remind me so much of myself when I was your age_," thought Danzo before he spoke verbally "Naruto, you have nothing to feel ashamed of, you completed the mission and even brought back something more," said Danzo as he put the picture back on the bookshelf and took out a rolled up map that was on the same shelf as the picture. "Now I want you to explain to me where you got this along with everything that happened after the battle." Naruto straightened up and informed Danzo about his encounter with the Iwa shinobi.

**Half an hour later**

Danzo was once again seated in his chair, now staring at the map "Interesting, so this was created by an Uzumaki that is somehow allied with Iwa," said Danzo before he flipped the map over. On the back of the map was a very complex seal that Danzo failed to understand. "_It seems as if this other Uzumaki is quite skilled in fuinjutsu to create a tracking seal like this. I could have Naruto try and crack this seal and attempt to reverse engineer it, but I can't risk losing this map if there are security measures installed in it to prevent tampering. I'll hand it over to my ROOT and have them capture a few of Iwa's spies starting with the ones in the land of fire. If I wait too long in doing that, Iwa will start setting up ambushes and attempt to capture my ROOT,_" thought Danzo as he made a hand signal before a masked ROOT member dropped out of nowhere. "West, I want you, East, North, South, Hyo, Terai, Dajimu and Tera to track down and capture as many of the targets marked on this map as possible within the next three days. If capture is not possible, I want you to eliminate them. Each one of them should have a fuinjutsu seal somewhere on their bodies; start from Konoha and fan out from there. You can break up into two or more teams if you feel it is necessary. When the time limit is over you and your squad will return, is that understood?" asked Danzo as West nodded and shunshined away.

Danzo turned to Naruto and gave him a hand signal that told the blond that he was dismissed making Naruto vanish in a shunshin of his own.

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10:00am

Naruto arrived at training field 10 to see Shikamaru sprinting up and down the stone wall as Asuma watched and a sleep deprived Tenten was throwing kunai and shuriken at some targets. Even in her sleep deprived state she still hit all the targets with 100% accuracy, but she seemed to be using more force than she normally uses since the projectiles sunk deeper into the targets than they normally do. Asuma noticed the blond "Well, looks like everyone's finally here," said Asuma as Tenten stopped what she was doing to turn around and see Naruto.

Tenten marched, over to Naruto, with bags under her eyes and punched him in the face before grabbed him by his collar with both of her hands "Where were you last night!?" she screamed at the blond before removing one of her hands from his collar to take out a kunai in her pouch. "You had me waiting outside in the cold waiting for you for hours!" she screamed as she held a kunai to his throat.

Shikamaru jumped off the wall and next to Asuma "What's going on?" asked the Nara.

Asuma lit a cigarette "Looks like they had a date last night and Naruto stood her up."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru stated.

Tenten heard what they said and dropped Naruto "It wasn't a date! I was just going over to Naruto's apartment to… talk." Asuma started to chuckle causing Tenten and Naruto to blush when they imagined what kind of conclusion the bearded man came up with.

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End

I decided to pump out a quick chapter.

Next chapter: Tenten finally becomes aware of her Bloodline. It would have been sooner, but the forbidden scroll arc took me longer than I planned.


	18. Chapter 18

**Reviews: 122**

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**Views: nearing 36,000**

**A/N: Well, turns out the Shimura are a shinobi clan… I'm just going to say Danzo is the only living member and sterile making the Shimura lose its clan status. **

**Chapter 18**

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**Later that day**

The members of squad 10 were standing in front of Izumo and Kotetsu in the mission hall. "Squad 10, reporting for a D-rank mission," said Asuma causing Kotetsu to pick up one of the scrolls that were labeled D before handing it over to the Jonin. Asuma opened the scroll and looked it over "Looks like you three will be pulling weeds…" said Asuma before he closed the scroll and looked over at Shikamaru, who was reading a book about genjutsu "…and I mean all of you. You're not allowed to skip this time and let the love birds do all the work." That last comment caused Naruto and Tenten to shoot angry glares at their sensei.

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**Konoha Streets**

Squad 10 were on their way to the mission before Tenten started walking next to Naruto "So, where were you last night?" asked Tenten.

Naruto looked nervous "_What do I tell her? Come on Naruto think of something."_ Naruto turned to Tenten and answered "Sorry, Tenten, I had to do something with Yakumo and Haku, it was a bit of an emergency."

Tenten narrowed her eyes "I see," she said before she quickened her pace leaving Naruto behind.

Naruto had the feeling that he came up with a bad excuse since Tenten didn't speak to him at all during the mission.

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**Council meeting**

Hiruzen was in a meeting with the advisory council, civilian council, clan heads and Danzo; they were discussing the theft of the forbidden scroll last night. The clan heads consisted of Aburame Shibi, Akimichi Choza, Nara Shikaku, Inuzuka Tsume, Yamanaka Inoichi, Hyuuga Hiashi, Kurama Unkai and Uchiha Fugaku. The Sarutobi clan did not hold a seat because a member of its clan was already in a position of power and having another member of the clan present was seen as unfair to the other clan heads. There were other clans living within Konoha, but they were not allowed to sit in on these meetings because they had very few members within their clans.

Hiruzen was seated at the head of a large rectangular table on his right side sat Homura while Koharu sat on the left. On the long sides of the table is where everyone else sat. On the right side were the eight clan heads and on the left was Danzo followed by the eight members of the civilian council. In the dark corners of the room stood ANBU, that were stationed there as security.

Hiruzen spoke up "Last night, the forbidden scroll that contained all of our village's kinjutsu was stolen and we have been unable to recover it." The entire left side of the council, save Danzo, burst into gasps and murmurs. The clan heads were already aware of this since some of their chunin had informed them and the civilian council had been informed by Hiruzen himself last night. "The main suspect is one of our recently failed Academy graduates, Tobio."

Danzo interjected "I apologize for interrupting Hokage-sama, but how is it possible that a recently failed Academy graduate managed to steal the scroll from your office?" asked the old war hawk.

Hiruzen looked over to Danzo and glared at him before letting out a sigh "I have reason to believe that he had help from two of our former chunin, that have been missing since last night." This caused more murmurs to break out, but this time from both the civilian and shinobi sides of the council.

"It would appear that we had sleeper agents amongst our ranks," said Hiashi.

Choza spoke up "Why would two chunin use an Academy graduate to steal the scroll?"

Shikaku let out a yawn "It's troublesome, but I'm willing to bet they weren't willing to risk everything to steal the scroll so, they instead had the kid steal it for them and if that kid got caught the two chunin in question would simply wash their hands of this Academy graduate."

"Who were these two chunin Hokage-sama?" asked a member of the civilian council.

"Umino Iruka and Toji Mizuki, they were instructors in the Academy," answered Hiruzen.

"Hokage-sama how is it the Academy instructors knew how to steal the scroll and escape while avoiding detection?" asked another member of the civilian council.

"According to the research I recently had done on both of them, Iruka was a member of the barrier division before he became an instructor so it is possible that he knows of some holes within our defenses. As for Mizuki he used to do some filing in the Hokage tower so he may have found a way to get to the scroll," answered Hiruzen.

Fugaku slammed the side of his fist against the table and gained everyone's attention "Are you saying that our defenses were breeched by two chunin level men that were academy instructors!? Has our village truly become this weak?" asked Fugaku before Danzo began to speak.

"It pains me to say it, but it seems true. We have not updated our defenses since the Kyuubi attack twelve years ago since we were too busy trying to bring our village back up to what it was at just before that fated day," said Danzo causing everyone to remember the battle with the Kyuubi.

"So it's the demon brat's fault!" screamed one of the members of the civilian council.

Hiruzen sighed and was going to argue, but before he could someone else spoke up "No, it is not Naruto's fault. If anyone is at fault here it's us, our village has been brought up to its former glory for going on four years now. We should have upgraded our defenses years ago," said Danzo much to the shock of several members of the council.

Hiruzen stared at Danzo "_He defended Naruto-kun? Not only that, but he called him by name. I thought I was just being paranoid before, but could it be that Danzo somehow managed to interact with Naruto? If so was this before or after he graduated the academy? I'll have to check the ANBU reports of Naruto's patrols later on,_" thought the Hokage before he remembered that he was in a meeting "Yes, Danzo is correct."

"Hiruzen," said Koharu gaining the attention of everyone at the table "If I'm not mistaken there was a young man in the defense division pushing for changes to be made in our villages security. Perhaps, it would be a good idea to let him join in on the meeting."

The Hokage nodded before signaling one of his ANBU to step out of the shadows. "Bring me, Jonin, Sabiru of the defense division," said Hiruzen before the ANBU nodded and shunshined away. "Now, before he gets here we need to discuss our plan for retrieving the scroll and the traitors."

Tsume spoke up "If they left any belongings in the village me and my clan can track them since they only left last night. As long as they didn't head north or northwest we should be able to find them easily."

"Why would it be more difficult if they headed north or northwest?" asked one of the civilian council members.

"Because there was heavy rainfall in that area last night that would have washed away any scent they would have left by now."

Hiruzen nodded "Both Iruka and Mizuki left their belongings at their homes. Tsume, if you wish, I may excuse you to begin your search."

Tsume nodded before standing up "Thank you Hokage-sama I'll gather up a squad and we'll leave rite away." Hiruzen and everyone else watched as the Inuzuka matriarch left the council room.

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**Defense division building**

Sabiru, a man with cyan colored hair, was looking over the village's blueprints, together with other Jonin and Chunin of the defense division. They were looking for any holes within the village's security until a short ANBU shunshined into the room. "Sabiru of the defense division, your presence has been demanded," said the ANBU.

The defense division looked at the ANBU in surprise until one of them spoke up "Sabiru, the council may have finally decided to look at your plans to improve our village's defenses. Maybe, the theft of the scroll opened their eyes," said one of the chunin present. Sabiru and the others looked at the chunin before several more of them started vocally agreeing with the man's guess.

"Is that true?" Sabiru asked the ANBU.

"Yes, it's true, now will you fucking hurry up?"

Sabiru figured it was best to hurry since the ANBU seemed to be in a foul mood "Okay guys, we'll pick this up later," said Sabiru before he left with the ANBU.

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**With Sabiru and the ANBU**

Sabiru decided to try and make conversation with the ANBU "aren't you a little short to be an ANBU?" the man asked in a playful voice.

"Funny," replied the ANBU in a sarcastic tone as the two of them continued to walk.

"Yeah, I thought so," said Sabiru with a friendly smile before the ANBU quickened its pace to walk ahead of Sabiru. "_Perfect now I can finally talk to the council and show them my plans. After that Konoha will have a few holes in its defenses that are not easy for them to spot and will be a huge advantage to Iwa if a war were to break out between the two,_" though Sabiru as he adopted a menacing looking grin on his face.

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**Back in the Defense division building**

After Sabiru and the ANBU left, the defense division returned to looking over the blueprints even with Sabiru not present. After about ten minutes a plume of smoke appeared in the room and a bird-masked ANBU appeared. This caught the attention of the defense division before one of them spoke up "Another ANBU member?" asked one of the Jonin.

The ANBU looked at the man curiously "What do you mean by 'another ANBU'?"

"Well just a little while ago another ANBU came in and took Sabiru," answered the Jonin causing the ANBU to look surprised.

"What? But that shouldn't be possible I was sent here to pick up Sabiru by the Hokage a few minutes ago."

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**Sabiru and the ANBU**

The two were walking in a secluded area before Sabiru felt something prick him in the back of his neck. The Jonin raised his hand to his neck and pulled something out. Sabiru looked to see a dart in his hand as his vision became impaired before he slipped into unconsciousness.

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**Council meeting; about twenty minutes later**

The bird-masked ANBU shunshined into the room and gained the attention of everyone present. "Bird where is Sabiru-san?" asked the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, it seems that Sabiru-san was abducted by someone that's impersonating an ANBU," answered bird causing the room to erupt in murmurs.

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**Mission hall**

Squad 10 just completed their mission and received their pay. As they were leaving Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see Shikamaru "what's up, Shika?" asked Naruto.

Shikamaru sighed "I was wondering if you could introduce me to that medic-nin you know?"

"Oh, okay. Hey Tenten?" asked Naruto gaining the attention of his female teammate "do you want to come with?"

Tenten closed her eyes and raised her nose as she turned away from the blond "Sorry, but I've got other plans."

Naruto hung his head "_she's still mad at me," _thought Naruto before the team exited the room.

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**Konoha streets**

As soon as the group left the Hokage tower Naruto and Shikamaru journeyed to the tower leaving behind Asuma and Tenten. When Naruto was out of sight Tenten's expression changed from angry to sad. Asuma and Tenten began walking to training field 10

When they were about half way to the training field Tenten began to talk. "Hey… Asuma-sensei, I need your help with something."

Asuma looked at his female student before he sighed "…Look I'm not a relationship counselor."

Tenten blushed before she glared at him "I don't need help with that! I was wondering if you could teach me some shinobi stuff."

"Shinobi stuff? Do you have a specific area in mind?" asked Asuma as he looked down at his student before Tenten moved her head in negative.

"I don't really have anything in mind. I just want to learn something useful since Shikamaru has that shadow jutsu as well as working on learning genjutsu and medical ninjutsu while Naruto is amazing in fuinjutsu and he even knows kenjutsu along with a couple ninjutsu. It just makes me feel useless since the only thing I'm good at is throwing stuff."

"Didn't Naruto say he was going to tutor you in fuinjutsu?"

"Yeah, and I thank him for that, but it's his area of expertise and I doubt that I would be much help to the squad since I don't think I'd be able to surpass him in it."

Asuma smiled "When we get back to the training ground, I'll teach you some taijutsu. Come to think of that's another thing that Lady Tsunade was good at," said the bearded man causing Tenten to smile excitedly and pump her fist in the air.

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**Konoha hospital**

Naruto and Shikamaru had just arrived at the hospital and were on their way to Kabuto's room "Hey Shikamaru what's with all the extra effort you seem to be putting in lately?" asked the blond causing Shikamaru to glance at him. "It just seemed that one moment you didn't have any motivation to do anything and didn't seem to hold any real interest in shinobi work at all. Then the next you started learning genjutsu seriously, increase your chakra capacity and now you're even trying to learn medical ninjutsu. You didn't have this much motivation when we were back at the academy."

Shikamaru sighed "I guess you could say it's because I got put on a squad with two training freaks," said the Nara causing Naruto to laugh nervously. "I wanted to take shinobi life nice and slow, but with the way you two have been training lately, I doubt I'd be able to do that since we'll most likely get sent on a C-rank mission a lot sooner than I'd like. After that we'd get sent on tougher missions and would probably end up at the next chunin exams with the two of you strong and ready while I'd just struggle to stay alive. That predicament is just too troublesome," finished Shikamaru as the two of them reached Kabuto's door.

Naruto knocked at the door before he heard someone on the other side walking to the door. The door opened and the two boys saw a silver haired teen standing in the doorway "Naruto-kun? I didn't expect to see you back this soon," said Kabuto before he noticed the other boy standing there "hmm… who might you be?"

Naruto answered the question for the black haired boy "This is my teammate Nara Shikamaru, he's interested in learning medical ninjutsu."

Kabuto looked at him "Is that so? What happened to your other teammate, Tenten, I thought she was interested in it?"

"She decided to learn something better."

"Better?"

"Fuinjutsu," said Naruto causing Kabuto to sigh.

"Naruto-kun, sure fuinjutsu is great and all, but there is a reason that Konoha has an act stating that every squad should have at least one medical-nin."

"Yeah, it's because medical ninjutsu is simple and easy to learn not like fuinjutsu that actually takes some work to master," said Naruto before he and Kabuto locked eyes and stared each other down. Shikamaru sighed before he cleared his throat causing the two to look at him.

"Oh, sorry about that, where are my manners my name is Yakushi Kabuto and I welcome you to my office please come in," said Kabuto before he moved to the side allowing the two boys to step in.

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**Kabuto's room**

Shikamaru and Naruto stepped inside the room and saw two beds. One of them was messed up and looked as if someone was recently sleeping in it while the other had an occupant. Shikamaru moved closer to the person that was lying in the bed and was surprised that it was someone that he knew "Shimura?" asked Shikamaru out loud to no one in particular.

Kabuto looked at the boy "Oh is he someone you know? He was brought in here last night and was in pretty bad shape. I don't know exactly what happened to him, but I do know that he was poisoned."

Shikamaru looked at his former classmate "_Last night? This guy said something about being surprised to see Naruto again 'so soon'. I wonder if this has anything to do with Naruto standing up Tenten yesterday. Then again it's not really any of my business to think about either of my teammate's personal lives,_" thought Shikamaru before he spoke "Yeah, I know him he was the rookie of the year of my graduating class. I wonder if he got poisoned on a mission or something."

"I doubt it since he was one of the graduates that failed the genin exams," said Kabuto.

"How do you know that?" asked Shikamaru.

Kabuto chuckled "Well it is my duty to know my patients so I took a look at his file," the silver haired teen answered.

"Troublesome."

"I beg your pardon."

"One of his teammates is my troublesome, loud mouth, friend. If he failed that means she failed as well. Now she's probably going to complain about it the next time I see her."

Naruto pondered trying to remember who Sai's teammates were until it hit him "You were friends with Ino? I've never seen you two do anything together," said the blond.

Shikamaru looked over to Naruto "Our dads, along with Choji's, were good friends so we often played together when we were little kids. Ino didn't talk with us much inside the Academy and the only times we'd really hang out was when our dads got together," answered Shikamaru before he looked over at Sai one more time. "Poison looks troublesome."

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**ROOT base**

When Sabiru went missing the meeting ended soon after and now Danzo was sitting in his office at the ROOT base "_I wish I could clear Iruka's name, but I can't do that without raising suspicion that my ROOT is still active,_" thought Danzo before he gazed at a wall safe that was situated on the wall across from him, this safe contained the forbidden scroll and was protected by fuinjutsu tags that would go off if the wrong person tried to get at the scroll. Danzo could have returned the scroll to Hiruzen, but decided against it because the Hokage had started to become more suspicious of Danzo lately and the scroll would be much safer in his ROOT base, that very few knew about and even fewer knew that the scroll was there when compared to the Hokage office that had very poor security and everyone knew about.

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**Training field 10 **

Asuma and Tenten have been sparing for going on an hour now and the later looked very tired out. "Okay now we break and start again in thirty minutes," said Asuma before she nodded in agreement and let herself fall backwards to the ground. Asuma watched as she breathed hard trying to catch her breath. Asuma took out his cigarettes and placed one in his mouth.

"Sensei that's bad for your health," said Tenten before Asuma lit his cigarette.

Asuma looked at the girl and smiled "Well I'm glad that you are so concerned for my health," said Asuma with the lit cigarette in his mouth causing the bun haired girl to sigh in response.

After about ten minutes of silence Tenten spoke again "Asuma-sensei, I'm grateful that you're teaching me taijutsu, but is there something more advance you can teach me?"

Asuma looked at Tenten "What do you mean?"

"Well, I know that taijutsu is important and everything, but I don't know any ninjutsu at all aside from the ones I learned at the academy."

Asuma folded his arms and seemed to be pondering something before he looked back to Tenten "I think I've got something that'll work great with your current fighting style, but it's not exactly ninjutsu."

Tenten sat up "What is it then?"

Asuma took out a trench knife and he held it in front of himself. "It's called chakra flow," said the bearded man before a blue glow surrounded the knife. Tenten watched it curiously wondering what it did. "This is technically a taijutsu move. This technique allows the user to apply their element of nature release to a weapon this also works with some secret arts as well."

Tenten thought for a moment before realizing how useful this could be "So what's your element and what does it do?" asked the bun-haired girl.

Asuma smirked "As you may recall I've shown it to you before. My element is wind and when using chakra flow it allows me to sharpen my weapon along with extending its range," said Asuma before the blue glow extended to a size several times longer than the trench knife.

Tenten was very impressed with her sensei, but began to look down when she thought of something "Sensei, I have no idea what my element of nature release is," said Tenten before the glow around Asuma's blade disappeared.

"Really? I thought that your class would have figured out what nature elements you had since your class completed the water walking exercise by the time you guys turned 10."

"No, none of us knows what our nature releases are. Well besides Naruto who has a wind element just like you."

Asuma looked wide eyed "Naruto's a wind type? That's extremely rare in the land of fire. Who'd have figured, I guess I should teach the little guy some wind jutsu sometime." Asuma then took his cigarette out of his mouth and put it out with his foot. "Well, Tenten, don't worry I have away to figure out what nature of elemental release you are. Stay here," said Asuma before shunshining away.

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**Hokage Office **

Hiruzen was looking over the ANBU reports that he received during Naruto's time at the academy and discovered something strange "He seemed to go to the same bush behind the Hokage monument, every single day. The first report says that it looked as if something pulled him into it, but there wasn't anything strange with Naruto-kun when he came out. There is another report ANBU report where the ANBU investigated the bush when they found it odd that Naruto-kun visited it every single day after that first time. However nothing was found and the ANBU assumed that he found rolling around in the bush to be fun." Hiruzen sighed before he put his pipe in his mouth.

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**Training field 10**

Tenten was going through some taijutsu katas before Asuma showed up via shunshin. "Asuma-sensei," said the bun-haired girl as she looked at the bearded man.

Asuma held out a couple of square pieces of paper and handed one of them to Tenten. "This is chakra paper. If you channel your chakra into it we can tell what your elemental affinity is," said Asuma before he channeled some chakra into the paper he was holding and the paper split in half. "If it splits like that then that means that you have a wind affinity."

Tenten looked at the man and thought of a question "Asuma-sensei I remember reading in the academy that most Jonin have two chakra natures."

Asuma nodded "That is correct and I'm no exception. My second chakra nature is fire."

"Then why-" Tenten was cut off when Asuma began to speak over her.

"Why did my paper only show wind element? Is that what you were going to ask?" Tenten nodded "Well these papers only show what affinity you have. In other words what element you are best with. People can learn jutsu outside of their affinity, but it requires a great deal more effort than learning jutsu from your own affinity and no matter how hard you train in that element you'll never be as strong in it as you can potentially be with jutsu of your own affinity. The reason why most Jonin stop at two is because every new element you learn is weaker than the one you learned before if it's not your affinity. However I've seen geniuses out there that have mastered four elements and be able to use them in combat effectively," finished Asuma as he looked to see that girl understood what he was saying. "Good it looks like you understand. Now channel your chakra into the paper so we can figure out what your chakra nature is."

Tenten channeled her chakra into the paper and fire started to form around the edges before the paper crinkled up as the fire slowly crept across the paper. Just before the fire touched her fingers, Tenten dropped it and the two of them watch the paper burn up. "I guess this means I've got a fire nature, right sensei?" asked the girl, but she didn't get a response. Tenten looked up and saw her sensei staring at the burned up piece of paper, slack jawed. "Asuma-sensei?"

Asuma snapped out of it and glared at Tenten causing the girl to take a step backwards. "You have… two affinities," said the Sarutobi.

"T-t-two? But you just said that I could only have one."

"Yes I did, but there are always exceptions. For those with a nature release kekkei genkai or kekkei tota they have two or three affinities."

"I have a kekkei genkai?" asked Tenten dumbfounded that she had something like that all this time and never knew about it. Asuma just nodded before Tenten asked another question "Can you tell what my kekkei genkai is?"

Asuma took a deep breath "You have fire and lightning affinities so your kekkei genkai would be explosion release."

Tenten went wide eyed "_Explosion release? Could that have been what caused that explosion all those years ago?_" the girl asked herself in her thoughts.

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End

Longest chapter to date

Well I know what most of you are wondering. Why did I make [fire + lightning = explosion] instead of [earth + lightning = explosion]

My answer is this, like many, I too used to believe that earth/lightning was explosion release up until I saw Gari. Gari's way of using explosion release was different than Deidara, who used clay constructs, and it got me wondering if the earth element was part of the explosion or the clay. So I decided to look at the wiki and noticed that [earth + lightning = explosion] was only a theory and was never proven to be right or wrong in the canon. After that I looked at Deidara and saw that, like I thought, he just injects explosion release chakra into his clay constructs. Then I recalled that Kurotsuchi who has lava release, which has been confirmed to be a combination of earth and fire, can use water element jutsu; meaning that Deidara may just be using an element outside of his own.

After that I decided to research other theories about explosion release and found one that I thought made sense somewhere on the internet. Now I didn't agree with all of this person's ideas, but I found a couple of them to be believable [Fire + Lightning = Explosion] and [Earth + Lightning = Magnet].

As for Blaze release, I never really saw it as a combination of two elements since you need a mangekyo sharingan to use it. The only reason that theory even exists is because Sasuke has fire and lightning releases.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: **

**1) I would like to thank SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan and GoodNyte for informing me on what Mizuki's surname was. The changes to the previous chapter have already been made.**

**2) My decision on fire and lightning being explosion release wasn't just because I thought fire/lightning was a good combination and the theory cannot be disproven. The bigger reason was… well you probably figured it out and if not you will soon.**

**3) Directed at a guest post:**

**I feel I should point out that iron sand is not a kekkei genkai, it's just a tool used in collaboration with a kekkei genkai. The third kazekage simply used the power of magnetism to control stray pieces of iron in the same way the fourth kazekage used magnet release to control gold dust. Also what I'm assuming that you're referring to as 'Mei's acid' is boil release which is a combination of fire and water. A water/lightning combination would get you storm release.**

**Chapter 19**

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Training Field 10

Asuma looked at Tenten "Tenten… don't tell anyone about this; not even your teammates."

Tenten snapped out of her thoughts "What? Why?"

"Explosion release is a kekkei genkai found only in Iwagakure. If word spread that you had it too quickly there's no telling what could happen. You could be shunned by most of the village when they learn you're of Iwa descent since Konoha and Iwa have never been on good terms."

"Iwa, but how am I… why…" said Tenten as she became more and more confused.

Asuma placed his hand on the young girl's head "I'm not sure, but I do have an idea. Don't worry… we'll figure this out," said Asuma before he removed his hand from the girl. "Until we figure this out I don't want you to try using your kekkei genkai. It could raise questions that we can't answer. Understood?"

Tenten nodded her head "Hai… I don't even know how to use it anyway," said Tenten before Asuma nodded as well.

"Until I say otherwise, we will work on your fire release," said the Sarutobi before he turned away from the girl and went through some hand seals "Fire Style: Ash Pile Burning!" shouted the man before a thick black cloud of smoke expelled from his mouth. Tenten looked unimpressed until her sensei clicked his teeth and created a spark before the cloud of ash exploded.

Tenten went wide eyed before a big smile took over her face "That was amazing! I had no idea that fire jutsu were so cool!"

Asuma looked at the girl slightly surprised by her comment until he closed his eyes and chuckled "They're even more amazing if you combine them with wind jutsu."

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**Later that night Hiruzen's home**

Hiruzen was asleep in his bedroom until he heard banging on his door. The aged Hokage awoke at the sound of the banging "Who could that be at this time?" Hiruzen asked himself as he climbed out of bed before making his way to the living room and then the front door. Hiruzen opened the door to see a very angry Asuma standing in his doorway and the elder Sarutobi just stood there with a stoic face as he locked eyes with his son.

"Old man, we need to talk," said the younger Sarutobi before Hiruzen moved to the side to allow his son entry. As soon as Asuma entered the residence his father shut the door behind him.

As soon as he entered Asuma walked into the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table, waiting for his father. Hiruzen soon followed his son pulled out a chair, sat down and smiled before taking on a saddened look. "Asuma, it's been a decade since the last time you've gone out of your way to visit me at my home." Asuma had a hand on the table which balled up into a fist as soon as Hiruzen spoke.

"Old man, I didn't come here for pleasantries or to bury the hatchet between us, there is something I've come to discuss with you involving one of the genin you put under my care."

Hiruzen's eyes widened "Do you mean Naruto-kun?"

After hearing that Asuma stood up from his seat, slammed both his hands on the table and screamed "No, I don't mean 'Naruto-kun', no matter how much you pine over him he's never going to replace the grandchild you already lost because of your stupidity!" Hiruzen looked regretful when he heard this causing his son to feel somewhat guilty for what he just said. Asuma settled back into his seat before he spoke again "Look… dad-" Asuma was cut off when Hiruzen began to speak.

"No need to apologize. In a way you are right," Hiruzen said before he sighed and looked down "In the end I only have myself to blame for what happened." Asuma looked downwards as well and a long pause began between the two Sarutobi before Hiruzen spoke again "Which one of your students did you want to talk to me about then. Judging from your demeanor it has to be something important."

Asuma looked up "Yes, the female member of my squad seems to have a kekkei genkei."

Hiruzen's eyes widened "A… Kekkei Genkai? Are you sure?"

Asuma looked at his father with absolute confidence and nodded. "I confirmed it when I tested to see what here affinity was."

Upon hearing this Hiruzen started to shake "_The female member of Squad 10 is Tenten. If I remember correctly it was Danzo that suggested that she be put on the team alongside Naruto-kun after the Jonin left the meeting for team assignments. Back then I agreed with it since I was aware of her friendship to Naruto-kun and thought it would be beneficial for him to spend more time with at least one of the few friends that he made in the academy. If Danzo somehow did manage to bring Naruto-kun under his thumb like I fear then could he have been aware of this Kekkei Genkai and plan to get to Tenten through her relationship with Naruto?_" Hiruzen thought as Asuma stared at his father with a bit of concern.

"Old man," Asuma said snapping the aged Hokage out of his thoughts.

"So, I'm assuming that this is a nature release Kekkei Genkai based on what you've told me," Hiruzen said making Asuma nod. "Can you tell me which one it is?"

Asuma took a breath "Explosion release," said Asuma with a bit of venom in his voice causing his father to go gain a shocked face.

"Could… you repeat that?"

"Explosion release," Asuma said once more.

"_That's what I thought you said,_" thought Hiruzen before he spoke "Do you think that she's…"

"Yes."

"I see." The aged Hokage looked hopeful for a moment before regret washed over him "I hope you're not just getting my hopes up."

"She should be some blood samples at the hospital like any other shinobi," Asuma said as he stood up from his seat before exiting the kitchen. Hiruzen followed his son until they were both at the front door. Asuma opened the door and before he left the man turned to his father "I hope I'm not just getting your hopes up either," said the younger Sarutobi as he walked out the door.

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**Next Morning**

Naruto arrived at training field 10 to see Tenten practicing with something other than projectiles. The brunette had her hands clasped together and seemed to be straining. The blond walked over to her and spoke "Hey Tenten what are you doing?"

Tenten looked up at the blond "Training," she said in a cold voice before she focused all of her attention back to her hands. Naruto accepted her answer and decided to watch instead of ask her anything else. The blond was indeed curious at what kind of training this was until she separated her hands to reveal a leaf.

Naruto was a bit surprised "Are you training you learning wind release?"

"No," she said plainly.

"Tenten… are you still mad at me?"

Tenten looked at him and saw the desperate look in his eyes that seemed to be begging for forgiveness "_I think I've stayed mad at him long enough,_" thought Tenten before she sighed "I'll forgive you if you treat me to some Chinese food on our next day off."

Naruto smiled "deal," the blond said before Tenten smiled back at him. "So if you're not training your wind release then, what are you doing?"

Tenten began to focus her attention back on the leaf "I'm training my fire release."

"A fire type, huh?"

"Yeah, Asuma-sensei said it was the most common nature type in the land of fire," Tenten said as smoke began to escape her hands. She opened them to see that the leaf had a hole burned through the middle. Tenten looked wide eyed "I did it?" she asked no one in particular before a smile enveloped her face "that wasn't so hard."

Naruto was surprised "Hey Tenten how long have you been doing this?"

"Asuma-sensei showed me the exercise yesterday when you and Shikamaru went to see Kabuto, why?"

Naruto looked at her wide-eyed "_Yesterday? That's amazing. She got through this step faster than I did and she didn't have to use a bunch of shadow clones to speed up the training or have someone constantly looking over her either._" Tenten began to feel a bit uncomfortable under the blond's gaze. Naruto without even thinking reached out and held her hands before he spoke "Tenten… you're amazing," the blond stated.

Tenten blushed a bit before pulling her hands away and placing them on her hips "Of course I'm amazing. What took you so long to figure that out?" she asked with her eyes closed and a confident smirk on her face before she opened her eyes again to look at the blond and give him a playful wink causing the boy to blush. Tenten giggled a bit as she looked at the boy's red face. It was at this moment that Tenten felt a wave of KI directed at her causing the girl to stop giggling and look around, but she didn't see anything.

Tenten brought her attention back to Naruto when he started to speak "Hey Tenten do you want to get some sparing in before the rest of our team shows up?" Tenten nodded and the two of them got into taijutsu stances.

After about half an hour of sparing the two genin decided to take a break. "I wonder where Shikamaru is? He's normally here by now," said Naruto as he looked around until he noticed an extra tree in the forestry. "Hey, Tenten."

The bun haired girl looked at the blond "What's up?"

Naruto pointed at the tree "Was that tree there yesterday?"

Tenten looked at that was sitting at the edge of the training field and sighed. "Do you keep count of the trees or something now?" she asked.

"Well not really. I just think there's something strange about it."

"It's just a tree, Naruto," Tenten said before she took out a kunai and threw it at the tree.

The tree vanished and was replaced by one, Shikamaru Nara before he jumped out of the way of the kunai. "Troublesome woman," muttered the Nara as he turned towards Tenten, who was now rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"Hey wait a minute, how long were you there?"

"I was here earlier than you. I wanted to see how long I could stay hidden before anyone noticed me," Shikamaru said before he turned to Naruto "So, besides being an extra tree did anything else give me away?"

"Wow your genjutsu is improving Shikamaru. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if you worked some scratch marks into your illusion." This caused the Nara to raise an eyebrow. "Look at the trees behind you," said Naruto as he pointed at the trees behind the black haired boy. Shikamaru turned around and saw a few scratches on all the trees that stood around the rim of the training field. "Tenten sometimes uses those trees as target practice and the lack of scratch marks is what got my attention initially."

Shikamaru sighed "I should have looked more closely at the area."

It was at this moment Asuma showed up "Hey team."

"Asuma-sensei," said the three genin in unison.

"Well before we start our missions for the day…" Asuma said before he looked over at Naruto "… Naruto, do you need any help in advancing your skills? I already know that your affinity is wind so, I could teach you some wind jutsu if you need them."

"Okay," said the blond "_Perfect, after some training with Asuma I'll be able to use some more wind jutsu without having to explain where I learned them._"

Asuma nodded "Okay time to go get ourselves a mission."

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**3 hours later; Konoha streets**

A brown cat with a red bow was eating something on the ground before three genin surrounded it. The cat ran between the legs of Shikamaru and kept on running through the streets of Konoha with Naruto, Shikamaru and Tenten in pursuit. Just as Naruto was about to grab it, the cat suddenly changed direction and ran into an alleyway. The cat kept running until it reached a dead end. The cat turned around to see the three genin slowly closing in on him until a civilian opened her window and accidentally knocked over a flowerpot that was sitting on her windowsill that landed right on Naruto's head.

While the blonde's teammates were tending to him the cat jumped onto some boxes followed by a trash can before it made its way over a wooden fence. Once the cat landed on the ground and just kept on running before it spotted a wagon carrying several supplies under a tarp that appeared to be leaving Konoha. The cat followed the wagon until it came to a stop at Konoha's gates.

A merchant seemed to be informing a chunin at the gate that he was leaving Konoha to trade some supplies. The cat used this moment to climb up the wagon by its wheel and hid itself under the tarp. The Chunin partially lifted the tarp and took a quick look under it to see if everything was in order.

The cat backed up under the tarp, trying to hide itself in the shadows as best it could. After a short while the chunin closed the tarp before saying "Everything's in order see you the next time you come by to trade." The cat let out a sigh and soon after the wagon began to move. As the wagon moved the cat decided to take a peek from under the tarp and saw the gates of Konoha in the distance. A smirk took over the cat's face as it saw one of those genin that were chasing it earlier run by the entrance of the gate.

The cat was extremely happy. It had finally escaped the clutches of its owner; sure it would have to live the life of a stray in another town, but to the cat that was heaven compared to being squeezed to death by its 'owner'. A rope of sausages that were hanging outside of a crate caught the cat's eye causing it to lick its lips before it raised its head to take a bite.

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**Mission Hall**

The next thing the cat knew it was getting squeezed to death by the owner it thought that it escaped forever. "Oh Tora, mama missed you. Why must you keep running away?" asked Shijimi, the cat's owner, while Tora was wondering what the hell was going on. The cat let out a screech when its owner started rubbing her cheek against its face.

Not too far away the members of Squad 10 and their sensei were standing in front of the mission desk where Kotetsu and Izumo sat. "Squad 10's mission to retrieve Tora, complete," said Asuma with a smirk on his face.

"And in record time too. How did you do it?" asked Kotetsu as both he and Izumo looked at the genin squad.

Shikamaru sighed "Well…"

**Flashback**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **

**Konoha Streets**

Shikamaru was sitting down on a tree branch with his back against the trunk and hands behind his head while he gazed at the streets before sighing. "Shikamaru, do you see anything on your end?" asked Tenten's voice coming from a radio seal that was placed on the Nara's shoulder.

"My end is all clear."

"Roger, How about you Naruto?" asked Tenten's voice

"All clear here too," said the blonde's voice.

After about ten minutes the Nara saw the target, Tora the cat, running through the streets of Konoha before it stopped to eat a scrap of meat that was lying on the ground. Shikamaru jumped over to the rooftop above Tora and went through some hand seals before the cat stopped eating and stood still. Shikamaru jumped down and grabbed the cat by the color before activating his radio seal "I've captured the target. I'll meet you guys at the mission hall."

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**Flashback End**

Kotetsu and Izumo stared at the Nara before they burst out in laughter "Leave it to a Nara to make the most difficult D-rank mission so easy," said Izumo while Kotetsu agreed.

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**End**

Next chapter I'll reveal whatever it is that Asuma and Hiruzen suspects about Tenten.

I'm not going to start this next chapter, but for the first C-rank mission I was thinking of doing the land of snow after a one or two month time skip. So, what do you guys think should I go with it or come up with something else because I think it may be a little early for that. There will be a few changes to the cast of villains for it though.

I kind of had a cross that bridge when I come to it mindset when it came to Konoha missions. My outline when it comes to those missions is really just a list of key events I want to happen in them.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Skip this A/N if you don't want to read my list.**

** no account: I'm pretty sure that's a rhetorical question, but since I'm bored and thought it was an interesting question I'll answer it anyway. Also, get an account.**

**So…**

**Nine reasons why me and so many other people may write D-rank missions:**

**1) Some people like to make it so their character starts at the very bottom so when they get far in the fic they can look back to see how far their characters have come. They go from picking up trash in a public park to fighting gigantic monsters of mass destruction.**

**2) Just to have a little fun while writing. Believe it or not it's sometimes fun to write a D-rank mission.**

**3) Lazy day; there are days when an author feels like writing something, but just doesn't feel up to continuing their plot.**

**4) Bide time; write a simple story that you don't need to think much about to satisfy your readers while you plan out the next mission.**

**5) To show advancements in skills. I know you said that this can be shown in higher rank missions, but there are times when it would make more sense for someone to test out their skills in a safer environment than the field. Which would you test out your genjutsu on first, a small animal or a trained shinobi that's trying to kill you?**

**6) So they have something to do. You want to keep your characters in Konoha to tell a story, but because it's the world of Naruto it wouldn't make sense for them not to do D-rank missions; especially, when they just graduated the academy.**

**7) Trust building. Another thing you said that can be done through higher missions, but like I said in number 5, in some cases it would make more sense to do things in a non-hostile environment. Either that or the author has a way of doing it that they think is cool and would like to share.**

**8) Want to use a D-rank mission as an excuse for the main character to stumble upon something of importance or initiate an event of importance.**

**9) You see other people do the Tora mission and you can't help but wonder how your fictional team of genin would go about doing it. **

**I apologize for the hundreds of words wasted on the A/N **

**Chapter 20**

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**Three days later**

Naruto arrived at Tenten's apartment and knocked on her door. After a short while the door opened and the blond saw Tenten "Hey Tenten, I'm here to hold up my end of the deal."

Tenten looked at her blond fried with a smile "Hey, Naruto I'm already ready," she said as she closed her door and locked it behind her.

Naruto tilted his head "Ready?" he asked curiously.

Tenten closed her eyes and laughed lightly "Why ready to take me to a restaurant of course," said the bun haired girl.

Naruto looked at her and blinked twice "Restaurant? I thought I was just going to buy you take out. I just came here to see what you wanted."

Tenten grew a tick mark "Of course you're taking me out to a restaurant. This is supposed to be an apology meal for you leaving me out in the cold, remember? You're not allowed to do this half-assed."

"But we can't go to a restaurant together!" the blond exclaimed.

Tenten narrowed her eyes "why not?"

Naruto looked away from her and put his hand on the back of his neck "Well it would look too much like a date."

Tenten blushed at the thought of dating the blond "So, is there a problem with that?"

"Well I don't want people to think that we're like that."

Tenten raised her hands in fists as Naruto put his hands in front of himself defensively "Are you saying there's something wrong with me! Why don't you want people thinking we're dating?"

"No… I'm not saying there's anything wrong with you!" screamed the blond as he backed into a wall with his hands still in front of him. "I'm just saying we can't be like that or have anyone thinking we're like that," said Naruto before Tenten froze.

Tenten looked down sadly "… I see," she said in a depressing voice before she walked back over to her door to unlock it. Just as Tenten unlocked the door, she turned to the blond and gave him a forced smile.

Naruto could tell the smile was forced and knew he should say something "Tenten, I… we could go to a restaurant if you really want to."

Tenten frowned "I thought we couldn't have people thinking we were on a date. I think that you made it clear that you find even the idea of going out on a date with me to be revolting. In fact over the years I think you've made it clear that you don't like to spend time alone with me at all. I'm starting to think the only reason we hang out is because nobody else would," she said with a small bit of anger in her voice as her eyes began to get more watery causing the blond to go wide eyed.

Naruto surprised Tenten by grabbing her by the shoulders causing the girl to stop and listen to him as a single tear rolled down her eye "Tenten, it's not like that. I do enjoy spending time with you. I'd have asked you out several times by now if…" the blond trailed off as he looked away from the brunette.

"If?" the girl asked with her shoulders stiffening in the boy's grasp.

"If it weren't for the villagers," Naruto finished.

"What do you mean?" Tenten asked as she relaxed her shoulders

Naruto looked into Tenten's eyes "You already know that the villagers don't like me, right?" asked the blond before the brunette nodded. "Well, I'm afraid they might do something to you if we started dating."

Tenten looked puzzled "Why would they do anything to me if we started going out?' she asked as she shook herself out of Naruto's grasp before she wiped the tears out of her eyes with her forearm. "You may want to try a different excuse. It's not like you're a mon-," she said before she went wide eyed as she remembered that people did in fact call him a monster.

"Tenten I am telling the truth. You asked me a week ago why everyone hates me. I can explain now if you let me in your apartment," said the blond before Tenten nodded in agreement as she opened the door and the two of them made their way inside.

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**Restaurant**

Asuma was sitting in a Booth together with Kakashi, Gai and Aoba. They were discussing their first week with their genin squads. Aoba adjusted his sunglasses "Neji and Shino are advancing just as planned. I'll admit it is taking a bit of effort to whip Sakura into shape. I was expecting her to be stronger since I did see promise in her taijutsu, back when I used to teach at the academy, but now her body is below the minimum standards for a genin," Aoba said with a sigh before continuing "However her chakra control has improved greatly since the last time I saw her in the academy. I dare say she might even be at Jonin level when it comes to control. I'm proud of all three of my genin."

The other three Jonin were impressed as they looked at Aoba who had a smug look in his face as he sat back into the cushioned seat. "Jonin level chakra control, huh? What are her reserves?" asked Asuma as he placed a cigarette in his mouth before lighting it.

Aoba smirked "They're about mid to high genin level. I'm thinking of teaching her some ninjutsu or genjutsu"

Asuma whistled "For a genin fresh out of the Academy that ain't half bad."

"It would seem that all of this year's fresh genin are a tough batch," said Kakashi as he turned a page in his book. The other three looked at him "Sasuke is already at chunin level in almost everything. According to him his father has been working him hard since he started the academy."

Asuma sighed "You mean around the time Itachi was disowned and striped of his title as clan heir," said Asuma causing Kakashi to nod. To this day no one knew why Fugaku did with he did and when asked both he and his son would not answer.

"All three of my genin are hardworking, the only other notable thing I have to share is that Yagura discovered that he's a sensor type," said Kakashi giving his fellow Jonin an unexpected surprise.

"Well that is impressive your team is full of youthful energy, Kakashi," said Gai.

Kakashi looked at the green clad man "Sorry, but did you say something Gai?"

Gai's face planted against the table before he brought himself up to an upright position "Curse you Kakashi, you and your hip attitude," said Gai as he tightened his fist.

Asuma sighed "So, how is your team doing, Gai?"

Gai smiled before going in his trademark 'nice guy' pose with his teeth shining brightly "They are doing exceptional! Their youthful flames are burning brighter every day!" screamed Gai as he stood up from his seat and put a foot on the table causing Asuma and Aoba to raise their hands over their faces in an attempt to hide themselves from the other customers. "I've started all three of them on weighted training and both Choji and Hinata are coming out of their shells!" said Gai before he started laughing quite proudly until Kakashi grabbed him by the bottom of his flak jacket and pulled the man back to his seat.

"Gai, you're embarrassing us," said Kakashi plainly as he continued to read.

Asuma sighed "Well I guess I'm the only one left. Now where to start? Shikamaru has taken an interest in medical ninjutsu and genjutsu. Tenten has been working hard in improving her taijutsu along with learning fire ninjutsu-" Asuma was cut off when Aoba spoke up.

"Fire ninjutsu? You can't be serious genin shouldn't be learning that it takes too much chakra for them to use nature chakra," said Aoba.

"You seem to forget that because of your training when they were in the Academy we have a tough batch of genin this year. In fact Sasuke knows fire ninjutsu as well," said Kakashi as he turned a page before blushing and letting out a giggle.

Asuma took the cigarette out of his mouth "I've been training Naruto in wind jutsu and it turns out the boy is basically a prodigy in fuinjutsu," said Asuma as he put out his cigarette in an ash tray.

Kakashi closed his book "That's an awful lot for just 1 week."

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**Tenten's apartment**

Tenten was sitting together with Naruto on her bed. The bed was surprisingly… girly; it had a pink blanket, pink sheets and pink pillow casing that was decorated with red shuriken. Near the head of the bed were a couple stuffed animals, a panda on the left of her pillow and a bunny on the right. "So… the nine tailed fox that attacked Konoha 12 years ago didn't really die and is sealed inside of you?" Naruto nodded as the girl looked at him "and the reason all the adults hate you is because they either see you as a reminder of everything they lost or the fox itself?" the blond nodded again before Tenten grabbed her panda and hugged it close to her body.

There was silence for about a minute until Naruto spoke "The adults told their children to stay away from me because I was dangerous and no good," said the blond with a sad smile as he gazed at Tenten's chocolate brown eyes that gazed back at him while she held the panda in her arms.

Tenten placed her panda back on the bed in its rightful place before folding her arms "Well they're closed-minded idiots. For once I'm glad I don't have parents if that's the way they would have acted," she said with a huff while looking down before she unfolded them and started to speak in a soft voice "You're not a monster like everyone says you are, if anything you're a hero for keeping the Kyuubi at bay."

Naruto smiled at her "I knew you'd accept me, but I'm a bit surprised that you're not mad at me for keeping this big a secret for so long from you."

Tenten let out a nervous laugh "I could see why you'd want to keep something like this secret and I'm glad that you trust me enough to tell me something like this." After she said that, she enveloped the blond in a hug that caught the Kyuubi Jinchuriki off guard. Once Naruto recovered from his surprise he returned the hug "_Besides I'd be a hypocrite if I got mad at you for keeping a big secret like that when I've been keeping a secret from you as well. When Asuma-sensei let's me talk about it you'll be the first to know, Naruto._" At this moment Tenten thought of all the angry glares that the villagers gave the blond "_Maybe, the only one for a while too,_" Tenten thought before the two of them separated.

"Thanks Tenten," said the blond with a big smile on his face before it turned into a smaller smile "Also you can't tell anyone about this…"

Tenten chuckled "Don't worry I'll keep the secret about the fox in your gut if you don't tell anyone that I keep a stuffed panda," she joked before Naruto let out a small laugh.

"But seriously there is a law that states that no one is to speak about the Kyuubi being sealed in me or they will be sentenced to death. Since it deals with me I think I'm the only one besides the Hokage that's authorized to speak of it."

Tenten sighed "Fine, I promise," she said before she remembered something "Hey didn't you say you would have asked me out several times before earlier, Naruto-kun?"

"Of c- wait a minute Naruto-kun? Why are you suddenly calling me that?" the blond asked with a blush.

Tenten blushed as well before avoiding eye contact "Well everyone else you know is calling you it. So why can't I?" she asked as she remembered Yakumo, Kabuto, the Hokage and even that girl that works at the ramen stand that she went to a couple times with the rest of squad 10.

"Ah… uh… well I don't have a reason why you can't it's just… I don't know it just feels different when you say it."

"Different how?"

The blond fought back a blush and decided to pretend that he didn't hear that last question "Anyway of course I would have asked you out before. You're nice, independent, loyal, hardworking, and cute; it's never boring around you and you're also very interesting-" the blond was cut off by a blushing Tenten.

"Interesting in what way?"

"Well don't get mad, but when I first saw you I thought you were a bit of a tomboy," said the blond while Tenten looked a little irritated, but didn't say anything and decided to let him finish "After hanging around you long enough I discovered that you can also be really well… feminine at times and I find that interesting, it kind of adds to your charm."

Tenten started blushing more before she let out an "oh"

"Most of all you're the one that inspired me to work harder in my shinobi training."

Tenten grew a curious look "What do you mean?"

"Well do you remember when we first met?" asked the blond before the brunette nodded.

"Yeah, I just finished my shuriken practice when you happened to be passing by," said Tenten remembering that day at the empty lot where she used to train.

Naruto chuckled "I was there for an hour watching you train before you noticed I was there."

Tenten widened her eyes before closing them and rubbing the back of her head while sticking her tongue out from the side of her mouth "I guess I kind of forgot about everything around me when I was training at that age."

"_She still does it at times_," thought the blond before he decided to continue "Watching you train that day for so long and giving it your all is what inspired me. Before then I lacked the patience to sit down and focus on anything for a long period of time." After Naruto said that the brunette thought about everything the blond had just said and her face lit up in the brightest blush she ever had in her life. Naruto looked at her and laughed "You should see your face right now it's so red."

Tenten became even more embarrassed, but also irritated and happy before she did something she didn't expect to do. She kissed Naruto on his lips causing the boy to stop his laughter. After she pulled away from him to look at his flustered face "Y-y-you w-were one to talk I bet my face wasn't even half as red as yours is right now."

Naruto didn't say anything and just stared at Tenten's red face as he felt the blood in his face continue to rise.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Hokage office**

Hiruzen was doing paperwork while seated behind his desk before an ANBU shunshined into his office. "Hokage-sama the results are finally in," said the ANBU as she placed an envelope on the desk.

Hiruzen nodded "Thank you Neko, you are dismissed." Neko nodded and shunshined away. The Hokage picked up the envelope and opened it. Inside the envelope was a folded paper that Hiruzen quickly unfolded to take a look at the results of a DNA test he had issued three days ago.

The aged Hokage looked to see that the results were positive. Hiruzen lied back into his chair while his facial expressions went through happiness, sorrow, regret, anger and hope. "I have a granddaughter," Hiruzen said to himself as he let the sheet of paper containing the results fall to the ground from his hand.

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End

Yep, Tenten's part Sarutobi on her mother's side, in a previous chapter I made it look like her mother was not from Konoha. Don't worry I'll fill in that plot hole next chapter which I was going to do this chapter, but I'm evil and like to keep you guessing.

With all honesty I don't think I did a very good job on the Naruto/Tenten moments in this chapter, but my cousin says it's just fine and I'm worrying about nothing.

The chapter after next will be when I start the first C-rank mission.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter bores you guys since it's mostly conversations. Also new poll on my profile page, Tenten's summoning contract; monkeys or toads? If monkeys I'll give them a sage mode just like the toads, only with a few changes. I honestly can't decide between them. **

**If I go with monkeys I'd let them transform into weapons made out of chakra metal so she could channel fire or explosion release into them. Plus, it'd be interesting to see them transform back and forth between monkey and weapon in the middle of combat. Then there is the fact that it is something like a family heritage.**

**If toads, then Tenten could use Ma and Pa to enhance her fire release attacks along with any toad that can use oil. Also imagine what'd be like to combine explosion release and frog kata. Plus, I could see Tenten getting excited about signing the toad contract with all the ways toads can increase the power of fire jutsu.**

**Chapter 21**

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**Restaurant**

Asuma and the other Jonin were still talking about their genin teams. "So, we are in agreement to hold a group sparing session between all of our teams in three months?" asked Kakashi before everyone nodded. "Good, so do you guys want to talk about something else while we wait for our orders?"

"Have you guys heard of all the disappearances?" asked Aoba.

"Disappearances?" asked Gai.

Asuma sighed "Yeah, they started with some guy in the defense division and after that about three other shinobi were abducted along with two civilians."

Aoba nodded before Kakashi spoke up "That is correct, but those are only the ones in Konoha, around the land of fire there have been a total of fifteen people have gone missing."

Asuma grunted "What's this village coming to? First we have the forbidden scroll stolen from right under our noses and immediately after that we have all these kidnappings. I hope dad will work to improve the security of the village."

Aoba raised an eyebrow "Dad? I haven't heard you call him that in over a decade; why the sudden change?"

Asuma looked at him "Recent events have made me decide that maybe I should give him a chance at redeeming himself." Aoba nodded in understanding while Kakashi and Gai were slightly curious as to why he needed a chance at redeeming himself in the first place.

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**Tenten's Apartment**

"Erm- Tenten we can't be together. I care about you, but I don't want anything to happen to you when the villagers find out," said a blushing Naruto.

Tenten grew irritated "As far as I know nobody ever laid their hands on you so what makes me so different? Besides you basically confessed your love to me or were those lies?"

"No, of course they weren't-" the blond was cut off by the brunette.

"Good, so what's the problem? I-I don't care what anyone else thinks, Naruto-kun," she said with a blush.

Naruto blushed at hearing her say 'Naruto-kun' "Tenten, just listen. The reason why nobody ever lays their hands on me is because the Hokage has a crystal ball that allows him to watch over me whenever he feels like it. The villagers don't take any chances because they don't know when he may be watching me."

Tenten looked around nervously "You don't think he's watching us now do you? I mean that's kind of creepy."

Naruto smiled "Don't worry about it. He lost it years ago, but he never made that known to the public."

"Don't… worry? Now I'm even more worried. What if a shady old man with weird fetishes found it and has been spying on you for all these years."

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**Root Base**

Danzo sneezed while he was watching a member of his ROOT, sporting a brown pony tail, torturing one of the captured spies. "_Someone must be talking about me_," thought the old war hawk as he watched the ROOT officer place a couple lightning seals on the shirtless spy, that had his feet soaked in a bucket of water while being suspended in the air by a rope tied around his wrists, before activating them. Danzo watched on as the room lit up brightly from the lightning and the screams of the spy were heard.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Tenten's apartment**

"Well, nobody said that anyone had to find out we're a couple. That is if we do become one," said the blushing girl.

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**Asuma's apartment; a couple hours later**

Asuma heard some knocking at his door and got up to see who it was. The bearded man opened the door to see an ANBU. The ANBU handed Asuma a scroll "Hokage-sama said you'd know what this is and why we're giving it to you," said the ANBU before he walked away.

Asuma opened the scroll to see that it was a storage scroll with a blood seal on it. The Jonin closed and locked his door before walking over to a table where he placed the scroll. "_Dad said I'd know what this is, but I don't have a clue_," thought the Jonin before he tried unsealing the scroll only to discover that it wasn't meant for him. Asuma was confused for a second before it dawned on him what this scroll was and why it was given to him.

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**Next morning; Training ground 10**

Asuma arrived at the training ground to see Shikamaru doing his routine exercises to increase his chakra capacity while Tenten and Naruto were going through their taijutsu katas on the training posts. Asuma took out his cigs and put one in his mouth before pulling out his lighter and flicking it open. The sound of the lighter caused all three of the genin to look over at their sensei before they made their way over to him. The bearded man looked surprised when Naruto and Tenten glanced at each other before blushing and avoiding eye-contact. Asuma stared at them with an open mouth while the lit cigarette fell out of his mouth and onto the ground.

Asuma's mind raced with several different scenarios of what might have happened between the blond and the girl that may or may not be his long lost niece "_Calm down, Asuma. Just because they blushed and avoided eye contact doesn't mean anything happened between them, right? Besides they're smart kids it's not like they would do anything they'd regret,"_ thought the Jonin with his eyes closed before his squad stood in front of him.

The three genin stared at their Jonin-sensei who instead of addressing them was deep in thought "Asuma-sensei, are you okay?" asked Tenten as she looked at him curiously.

Asuma opened his eyes before he smiled at them nervously. "Oh, nothing's wrong at all," said the Jonin as he stepped on his cigarette to put it out. "…_I hope."_ Asuma grinned "Okay, to help with our team bonding how about we share with each other what we did on our day off." As soon as Asuma spoke those words Naruto's and Tenten's faces turned red. "_Something definitely happened_," thought Asuma as he narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

"W-why do you want to know that?" asked Naruto with a small stutter.

Shikamaru sighed "I agree. We're with each other for seven days straight and after that we only get one day off. Can we keep anything private?" asked the Nara as he cracked his neck.

Asuma looked at the ponytail boy before smiling "Well it's important that we know as much about our squad as possible. If a member of our team was captured and replaced by an enemy shinobi then knowing each other's habits would increase the chances of us finding out that they aren't who they say they are. It'll also increase the trust between us." The Nara sighed and accepted the answer while Asuma turned to the blond while sporting a fake smile "Why don't you go first, Naruto?"

Naruto flinched "Well… I bought take out," said the blond while Asuma looked at him like he was waiting for him to continue "… and that's about it. I spent most of the day indoors." This caused a vein in Asuma's head to throb.

Asuma turned to Tenten "Okay, now what did you do on your day off Tenten?"

Tenten gulped "I-I spent most of the day indoors like Naruto-kun." Asuma and Shikamaru looked at her with suspicion before Asuma cleared his throat.

"_I'm going to have a little 'talk' with Naruto after we're done today,"_ thought the bearded Sarutobi before he spoke "Let's go to the mission h-" Asuma was cut off as a bird-masked ANBU jumped out of the trees and landed near his squad.

The ANBU was kneeling before them with hand on the ground and the other on his knee "Jonin: Sarutobi Asuma and Genin: Tenten your presences have been requested by Hokage-sama. Due to… events I will not be escorting you to the Hokage tower." Asuma nodded, knowing exactly what this, summon, meant while Tenten was confused for a moment before realization hit her when she saw her sensei's face.

"Hai, we will go there right away," said the Jonin before he turned to his other two genin "Well looks like you two have another free day since I think this will take a while. We'll have to do our D-rank mission some other time. So, you two can train or do whatever you want."

After Asuma, Tenten and the ANBU left; Shikamaru turned to Naruto "So are you and Tenten together now?" asked the Nara.

Naruto chuckled nervously "No, whatever gave you that idea."

Shikamaru sighed as he raised a finger "One: you two have been acting weird around each other. Two: you both started getting nervous when asked what you did yesterday. Three: both of you said you were indoors, but didn't specify where. And finally four: Tenten called you 'Naruto-kun'. All of this would make anybody suspicious," said the Nara now holding up four fingers.

Naruto's eyes widened "Please, don't tell anyone," said the blond with eyes that were desperately begging the Nara to keep the secret.

Shikamaru sighed "I was going to do that anyway it'd be too troublesome to spread gossip anyway."

"Thank you Shikamaru," said the blond with a sigh of relief before another thought crossed his mind "You don't think Asuma-sensei knows do you?"

Shikamaru let out another sigh "Of course he knows. Couldn't you tell when he only asked you and Tenten what you did yesterday and not me?" asked Shikamaru as his male teammate's eyes widened in realization.

"_Damn it, how am I so bad at keeping this a secret. I've kept Danzo-sensei training me a secret for so many years so, why is this so hard?"_ thought Naruto as he hung his head.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow "_I've never seen him act like this before._"

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**Hokage's office**

Asuma and Tenten were standing in front of the Hokage. Hiruzen had a sad expression on his face as he gazed at the young girl. The Hokage waved his hand and the few ANBU hiding in the office left. After the leave of the ANBU, The three of them stayed silent for a couple minutes.

Tenten grew a little irritated with the tension in the air "Um- Hokage-sama was there something you needed us for?"

Hiruzen sighed "Tenten what I'm about to tell you will change your life forever and I'm going to leave it up to you whether or not this should be made public." Tenten nodded. "About 15 years ago my daughter, Sarutobi Mito, met a man named Gari and fell in love with him. They dated for about two years before Gari revealed that he was from Iwa's explosion corps." Hiruzen paused for a while.

Tenten started to understand where all that tension buildup from earlier came from "_Could I be…"_

"Once Gari revealed that he was from Iwa, we had him detained, since we were unsure whether or not he was a spy. Soon after that, it was discovered that Mito was pregnant with his child. My clan did not want it to get out to the public that one of our clan was pregnant with the child of an enemy shinobi so we kept it secret," Hiruzen said before another pause to let the information sink into the genin's mind.

"So, are you saying I'm your granddaughter?" asked the girl causing the Hokage to nod "Then why did I grow up alone!? All this time I thought I was alone with no family! Did you abandon me because of who my father was!?" roared Tenten. Hiruzen looked downwards in shame unable to look her in the eye. "That's it isn't it? You and my mother abandoned me because of something outside of my control!"

Asuma put a hand on the girl's shoulder "Tenten don't ever say that. Nee-chan loved you and while she was pregnant she'd often call you 'a gift from heaven'," said the bearded man as the bun haired girl looked up at him.

A single tear rolled down Hiruzen's eye "But you were right about me…" Hiruzen said causing Tenten to look over at the Hokage "No, I should say it was far worse than simply abandoning you. While Mito was pregnant I threatened to disown her, revoke her license as a Kunoichi and once I even went as far as saying I'd exile her from the village if she did not abort you."

Tenten now understood why Asuma-sensei, or was it Asuma-oji-san now, didn't like this man when she thought about how much her Kaa-chan went through just to bring her into this world. "Then what happened to my Kaa-chan after I was born?" asked with worry and anger in her voice.

Asuma sighed "Maybe I should be the one to answer that." Tenten looked at her sensei and signaled him to continue with a nod. "Now where to start… well after 'dear old dad' stepped down from his position as Hokage he took the position of clan head for the Sarutobi clan," said Asuma before he mentally added "_but for him that was only to show that he could still hold true to some of the threats he made to Nee-chan if you were born_."

When Asuma kept paused for too long Tenten spoke up "Sensei?" she asked.

Asuma continued speaking "After that Nee-chan couldn't stay within the walls of her clan anymore and even with Dad out of the Hokage chair he still had the power to revoke her shinobi license as a clan head. Then there was the fact that you being born didn't mean that dad and the rest of the clan would let you live and grow. So she sought haven with the most loyal friend she had, my sensei from back when I was a genin, Namikaze Kushina."

Tenten looked surprised "Namikaze? Wasn't that the family name of-," she started before Asuma cut her off.

"Yes she was the wife of Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage."

"So, what happened after that?"

"Kushina formed a plan along with her husband that would keep you and her safe. The plan was for your Kaa-chan to put you in an orphanage for about half a year before the Namikazes adopt you into their family after their child was born. Nee-chan would visit you often and they'd play it off as her just being close to the Namikaze family. When you reached an age where you could understand they were going to tell you everything."

Tenten figured out on her own what happened next "… Then the Kyuubi attack happened. Didn't it?" she said in a sad voice.

Asuma nodded "Both the Yondaime and his wife gave their lives to stop the Kyuubi attack; they died as heroes. In the aftermath of the attack it was discovered that the orphanage you were sent to was destroyed. Your mother was heartbroken and fell into depression."

Tenten took on a saddened expression as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Is she still alive?"

Asuma shook his head in negative "I'm afraid not. She died shortly before your cousin, Konohamaru was born. After she thought you were dead she went on suicide mission after suicide mission until she eventually died."

Tenten formed a tightened fist "And my father? What happened to him is he still in the prison cells?"

"After dad retook the title of Hokage he chose to send all of the inmates in our prisons to Hoozuki Jou, including your father, since we couldn't afford to feed them at the time. I'm afraid that he too is no longer among the living, he hung himself."

Tenten was partially happy that she knew more about her parents, but she felt saddened that they both met such depressing ends "Wait, how did I survive?"

"Well if I were to take a stab in the dark… I'd say the Yondaime saved you with his Hirashin before he battled the Kyuubi."

The Hokage, who had remained silent for a while spoke up "Tenten… now that you know the full story, do you wish for it to be made public? I can understand if you can never forgive me for everything I've put your mother through. If you wish it, you can live in the clan compound while I live in the Hokage tower."

Tenten glared at him "Why did you fight so hard to make sure that I wasn't born?"

The old man avoided eye contact "There were several reasons for that. The first was to satisfy my clan; they feared that this would bring dishonor to the Sarutobi name. The second was for this not to get out to Iwa or the other nations; to them it may have looked like we abducted an enemy shinobi with a bloodline to steal his seed and restart their clan in our nation. Finally, I had a personal vendetta, back then, against Iwa for all the friends and family lost during the war."

Tenten was shocked "_This is the man that everyone sees as the most forgiving of the Hokage? The one that Naruto-kun believes would never fault a child for actions outside of their control?_" thought the brown haired girl before she spoke up "No, I don't wish to make this public… at least for now," she said before she thought "_I don't want to destroy how Naruto-kun sees you._" Hiruzen looked at the young girl and nodded "Can I be dismissed, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes," answered the Hokage before both Tenten and Asuma left the room. The Hokage sat back in his chair thinking back on everything he did after Mito revealed the plan that she and the Namikazes came up with. After that his family fell apart; his wife was dead, Mito threw herself into a frenzy of suicide missions and Asuma went to the fire temple. The only one that stayed with him was his eldest son, Awaji, but he too died shortly before his son, Konohamaru, was born.

When Hiruzen saw the mistreatment of Naruto he began to truly realize that it was wrong to fault a child for actions outside of their control. "I guess in some part of my mind I thought that by doing everything in my power to protect Naruto I could earn repentance," said the old Hokage out loud to no one in particular before he took out his pipe to put some tobacco in it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Training field 10**

Asuma and Tenten arrived at the training field to discover that Naruto and Shikamaru were gone. "Looks like they left," said Asuma before he noticed Tenten staring off into space. "_Well she did go through a lot today,"_ thought the bearded man before he spoke "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

Tenten snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the question "Huh sorry but what did you say?" the girl asked before Asuma smiled and asked the question again.

"I said is there anything you want to talk about? I know that you have a lot of things to sort through and maybe talking to your Oji-san would help."

Tenten smiled sadly "I was just thinking about the Namikaze child. He or she was going to be my little brother or sister. It's just sad that it didn't even get a chance at life."

Asuma smirked "_If only she knew,"_ thought the man before he placed his hand on his nieces head "Well we thought you were dead for all these years. So, who knows maybe he's out there too."

Tenten smiled, but she knew better than to get her hopes up "yeah."

Asuma removed his hand from the brunette's head to pull out a scroll from his flak jacket. "Inside this scroll are all of your father's belongings. I'm sure there are some scrolls on explosion release in here."

"Is it okay if I tell the rest of my team about my kekkei genkai now?"

Asuma closed his eyes "Well the Hokage did say it was your choice to make it public so go right ahead."

Tenten smiled "Hai."

"Well, since you are a member of the Sarutobi clan then it'd be fine if I teach you some of our clan's jutsu. That is if you want too."

"Hai, I'd definitely like that."

"Our clan has something that resembles a bloodline, but it's more like a trait rather than an actual kekkei genkai."

"What is it?"

"Well, you see our clan has the ability to learn almost any kind of jutsu at a fast rate. I think that this may be the reason you've advanced so fast in your training in fire manipulation," said Asuma as he finally handed the scroll to his niece.

Tenten took the scroll and began to unseal it "What really? How long does it take for other people to advance as far as I did so far?"

"It takes weeks and sometimes months just to get passed the first exercise," said the bearded man as he watched Tenten getting excited over all the scrolls that she unsealed before an idea formed in his head "So what happened between you and Naruto yesterday?"

Tenten answered the question without a second thought "We shared our first…" Asuma's eyes widened "… kiss," Tenten finished before she blushed when she realized what she just said.

"Thank kami, it was only a kiss," Asuma said as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**End**

Next chapter will be a time skip.

Again, check out the poll on my profile page.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: **

**I apologize for the later than usual update. So, I'll definitely update today and write until I have at least 5000 words in this chapter and I'm not leaving my PC tonight until it's done. **

**Chapter 22**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Outskirts of Kirigakure; six months before the formation of Squad 10**

A young woman with a mixture of green and orange hair sporting a Suna headband was walking through a valley between two cliff walls immersed by a dense mist. As the mist grew thicker the woman continued walking until a human shaped silhouette approached her. The green haired woman pulled out a kunai and lowered herself into a stance before the figure got close enough for the Kunoichi to see that it was a Kiri shinobi. "Pakura of the Scorch release," said the Kiri shinobi as he walked forward with a smile. The Kiri-nin looked at the kunai in the kunoichi's hand and noticed the stance she was in "You know we're on the same side rite?" asked the Kiri-nin with a nervous smile.

Pakura gazed at the man, looking for any sign of a transformation jutsu and saw none "Sorry, it's the thickness of this fog. I couldn't be sure who was approaching me," said the woman as she placed her kunai back into her pouch. Pakura took another look at the man in front of her and nodded mentally when she silently confirmed that this did look exactly like the photo of the man that the Kazekage ordered her to meet to discuss negotiations with Kirigakure.

"Yeah the mist is a little thicker than normal today; even I had a little trouble navigating it," the Kiri nin admitted before he relaxed himself "Anyway it's nice to meet you. Now if come right this way we can proceed with the negotiations," said the Kiri-nin as he moved to the side, allowing Pakura to pass.

"Yes," she said before she began walking passed the man. Almost immediately after she was three steps away from the man, she felt a kunai sink deep into her back and went wide eyed.

"Feel the pain felt by our comrades who were killed by your village," said the man before he kicked her onto the ground and jumped back. The man expected two barrages of kunai to attack the woman, but they never came. "What?" asked the man before his line of site suddenly became lower. The man rolled on the ground before he noticed two pairs of legs standing before him. One pair dropped to its knees before falling forward, revealing to the man that this body was headless. Before the man could work out what happened his world went black and he was dead.

Pakura got up to her knees before attempting to pull the kunai out of her back. "You shouldn't pull that out before you have a way to bandage up the wound," said a masculine voice which caused Pakura to look in the direction that the man jumped to after she was stabbed. The woman was surprised to see that the Kiri-nin's decapitated head lying on the ground next to his headless body. She stared at the dead man until the voice spoke again "Pathetic isn't it, what kind of Kiri shinobi wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the hidden mist jutsu and a natural mist." Pakura turned her gaze to see a tall Kiri shinobi with short black hair, and bandages covering the lower half of his face holding a giant bloodied sword.

"Who are you?" asked the woman.

The outline of a smile could be seen through the bandages "That's up to you; right now I'm the man that just saved your pretty little ass. Now after I tell you why this event transpired you can choose to be my enemy or servant. I'd prefer it if you picked option 2."

Pakura narrowed her eyes "I meant a name and why would I ever want to serve you?" she asked with a bit of venom in her voice.

The man kept his eyes trained on the girl, not even once letting his guard down. "Because it's either that or die, but after I say what needs to be said you may want to join me willingly," said the man before the woman created a fireball, in her hand, without any hand seals. The man disappeared from site and before the woman could look around the giant sword came crashing down on her wrist. Pakura closed her eyes when the blade impacted the ground. She slowly opened them when she realized that she could still feel her hand and saw that her wrist was pinned to the ground by a semi-circle cut out in the large blade.

Pakura looked up at the man "Fine, talk."

The bandaged man pulled out a document from the Kiri uniform that he was wearing and brought it close enough for Pakura to read, even in the dense fog. Pakura's eyes widened when she read a message in the Kazekage's handwriting that stated that she was a sacrifice to forge a treaty between Suna and Kiri. She doubted it for a little while until she saw the Kazekage's seal at the bottom of the document. "That's right you are nothing but a sacrificial lamb that your Kazekage used in order to build an alliance."

Pakura looked at the man "Why did you save me then? Aren't you a Kiri-nin?"

"I thought that a high ranking Kunoichi would be familiar with the bloodline purges if she came to the mist village on a mission. I guess I was expecting too much from you," said the man with a disappointed sigh.

Pakura's face lit up in anger before she calmed herself "Then I guess you're a bloodline user that's part of the resistance and the reason you want me is to help you and your cause."

The man looked down at her "Well it looks like you're not a fool after all. You're mostly right, but I'm not a part of the resistance or at least not a part of the larger resistance and I don't have a bloodline."

"If I do join you what makes you think that I won't just kill you when you have your guard down later?"

The man narrowed his eyes "I **never** let my guard down and if you try to do me in, you **will **die. You'd be dead already if I didn't decide that you were worth saving," said the man in a threatening voice. "I doubt you could return to your village now nor would you even want to. Let's say you manage to kill me, what then, would you return to the village that sentenced you to death or would you live life as a solo missing nin with nobody watching your back?"

Pakura clenched her fist "Fine, I'll join you," she said begrudgingly. The man looked at her, trying to find any hint that she was lying and found none.

"The name is Zabuza," said the man before he picked up his blade one handed, freeing Pakura. The woman rubbed her wrist before Zabuza pulled the kunai out of the woman's back and bandaged her up. After that was done the man stood up and placed the flat of his blade on his shoulder and started walking away before Pakura followed.

"So Zabuza… you said that you weren't part of the larger resistance. How many people do you have?"

"Including us?" he asked before looking upwards seemingly in thought as the two walked "two."

"What?" she yelled.

"Well I lost my entire battalion after my last attempt to kill the Mizukage failed."

Pakura began to wonder "_Is this man was worth following? Maybe I would be safer by myself,"_ she thought before he brought his blade up to her neck.

"I haven't started slipping yet. I sensed a small bit of killing intent coming from you," said the man before he placed the blade back on his shoulder blade and continued to walk off. "The Mizukage would already be dead if it wasn't for those two."

"Those two?"

Zabuza looked at her "It doesn't matter, I'm building a new army and you will be the first. This time I'm focusing on quality not quantity. For that reason we are leaving Kirigakure after we gather some supplies." "_When I return to this village I'll be prepared for those two with the black cloaks and red clouds that managed to take out my entire army single handed. That one, that could phase through anything and that other one that could destroy anything. It's a good thing I at least got those documents from the Mizukage's vault along with a few other things before I was forced to retreat."_

**Present day, a month and three weeks after the formation of Squad 10**

Asuma and the members of Squad 10 were walking through the streets of Konohagakure, on their way to visit their client. "So, Asuma-sensei, who's our client this time and what does he need? Walking dogs? Pulling weeds?" asked Shikamaru in a bored voice as both Naruto and Tenten sported an equally bored faces, which was understandable after doing a total of 29 dull D-rank missions.

Asuma smirked "No, we won't be doing anything like that on this mission," said Asuma causing his three genin to look up at him in surprised "Didn't you guys wonder why we're going straight to our client before going to the mission hall? Today will be your first C-rank mission."

Naruto and Tenten lost their bored faces before they smirked "Well don't keep us in suspense; what's our mission?" asked Naruto as Shikamaru sighed.

"Our client is Asama Sandayuu and your mission is to provide assistance for another genin squad whose job is to bodyguard an actress," said Asuma as they arrived outside a movie studio.

As Asuma unlocked the door to the studio, using a key that he apparently received when he received the details for the mission, Shikamaru spoke up "I take it this other genin squad was part of our graduating class since the Hokage deemed it necessary to send out two genin squads for a simple bodyguard mission."

"Yep, you will be assisting squad 7" said the Jonin as he opened the door to the studio and headed inside the studio.

Upon hearing the words 'squad 7' all of squad 10 muttered "Troublesome" before they followed Asuma into the studio.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Hokage office; 2 hours earlier**

Asuma was standing in front of the Hokage, alone, holding the mission details that he received this morning via ANBU. "Ugh, dad, are you sure it's a good idea for my squad to be assisting squad 7? I mean you did ignore Kakashi's request to add Naruto to his squad because he and Sasuke don't get along," asked Asuma as he watched his father let out a puff of smoke from his pipe.

Hiruzen removed the pipe from his mouth and glanced at his son before sighing "Those two need to learn how to work with people they don't like sooner or later and what better time than a simple bodyguard mission," answered the Hokage as he went back to his paper work.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Present; movie studio**

Tenten whipped her head back and forth between all of the various actors and movie posters before she let out a girlish squeal "This is the set for the Princess Gale movie," she said excitedly gaining the attention of the rest of squad 10.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow "I didn't think that you were into movies like that," stated the Nara as the crew moved around packing props and equipment into boxes and moving them out back.

Naruto sighed "Yeah, Tenten has always been a fan of the Princess Gale movies. She says that Princess Gale is a strong independent woman with a tenacity that can match Tsunade of the Sanin," said the blond before someone spoke up.

"Asuma? So it's your squad that will be assisting mine today Ne?" asked a voice causing Asuma and Squad 10 to look in the direction it came from to see a Jonin with silver gravity defying hair, one covered eye and a facemask covering the lower half of his face.

Asuma nodded "Yep, kids this is Hatake Kakashi the Jonin leader of squad 7 and Kakashi these are my genin; Shikamaru, Naruto and Tenten," said the man with a bit of pride heard within his voice.

The silver-haired Jonin looked down at Naruto and the blond stared back at the man. "_So, that's sensei's son?_" thought Kakashi.

The two of them locked eyes for a good 10 second before Naruto stated "You look like a cross between Aoba-sensei and Kumade-san."

"You know, now that you mention it, I can kind of see it," said Asuma with his arm folded and his head tilted while Kakashi eye-smiled. "So, Kakashi where are your genin?"

Kakashi looked to Asuma "I sent them to watch the showing of the latest Princess Gale movie. I figured it would be good to let them familiarize with the kind of work our client does," said the one eyed Jonin causing Asuma to nod.

"Hey how about we go watch a showing, too?" asked a hopeful Tenten. "_It'd be the closest thing to a date that I can have with Naruto-kun. Even though I suggest that we have a secret relationship; I really don't care what others think, but Naruto is just so dead set on not giving anyone the idea that we're dating,"_ thought the girl as she looked up at Asuma with huge brown puppy-dog eyes.

Asuma looked down at his niece before taking a quick glance at Naruto before returning his gaze to Tenten. Before Asuma could respond Kakashi spoke up much to the bearded Jonin's irritation "Well there's still plenty of time before we need to leave. So, it should be okay for your team to see one showing of the movie as long as you get back before… hmm let's say 10 pm," said the silver haired Jonin before Asuma added something.

"Yes, all threeof you may go see the movie. In fact, I'm now ordering you three to see it together and it'd further your training if all three of you increase your chakra reserves by clinging to the ceiling together while you watch the movie," said Asuma.

Shikamaru sighed "Troublesome," the Nara stated before he turned on his heel and started to walk out of the studio "I'll meet you guys at the theater," said Shikamaru before he disappeared from sight behind the exit door.

Naruto sighed "C'mon Tenten let's go catch up to him," said the blond before Tenten shook her head in negative.

"I want to meet the real Princess Gale, Fujikaze Yukie, first," she said before she started searching around the studio. When the brunette was having difficulty locating her she stopped a crew member that was carrying a medium sized box with a smaller box balancing on top of it. "Pardon me, but can you tell me where Fujikaze Yukie is?" asked the brunette causing the man to turn sideways so he could look at her.

"Fujikaze-_hime_ is in her dressing room, it's right down that hall" said the crew member as he rolled his eyes when saying hime before he motioned his head to a hallway.

Tenten bowed slightly before saying "arigato gozaimasu." The bun haired girl bolted down the hallway before the crew member resumed his duties. Naruto decided to follow after her until she saw Tenten looking into an opened dressing room. The blond was curious as to why the girl stopped before he heard voices.

"No," a female voice stated before Naruto reached the dressing room and peered inside to see the actress, Fujikaze Yukie, talking with a bearded man wearing circular spectacles.

"No? But the script demands we go to the land of snow! I beg you Yukie, the show must go on," pleaded the bearded man.

"I'm telling you, Sandayuu, there's no way in hell I'm ever going to a place like the land of snow!" screamed Yukie.

"And I'm telling you that you must go! No other location would work," Sandayuu screamed back causing Yukie to clench her teeth and ball up her fist before she relaxed herself and let out a sigh.

"Fine, I'll go," she said with her eyes closed causing Sandayuu you smile.

"Thank you Yukie-hime," said the man before he walked out of the dressing room and into the hallway. Sandayuu spotted the two genin and was going to ask them what they were doing here, but stopped when he noticed their Hitai-ates. "Ah, you must be the shinobi bodyguards I hired. My name is Asama Sandayuu, you're client," said the bearded man as he extended his hand before Naruto grasped it and gave him a nice firm handshake.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto and this is Tenten," said the blond as Tenten gave a small wave when Naruto stated her name.

Sandayuu nodded "I would like to speak to the Jonin in charge of you two."

Tenten spoke this time "Asuma-sensei is just down the hall, in the main area." Sandayuu nodded again before he headed to the main area. After the man left Tenten walked into Yukie's dressing room before knocking on the opened door.

Yukie looked towards her doorway to see the two young shinobi. "What do you want?" asked the woman in a cold voice causing Naruto to glare at her.

"Sorry to bother you, I just wanted to meet the woman behind Princess Gale," said Tenten trying not to irritate her further.

Yukie looked at her with her eyes half lidded "Oh, do you now?" asked the dark haired woman before Tenten gave a small nod causing Yukie to start smiling "I bet both of you want an autograph too?" she asked with mock excitement. Both Naruto and Tenten could tell that she was mocking them and retaliated by glaring at her with narrowed eyes.

Tenten was about to respond, but stopped when Naruto grabbed her by the bicep and shook his head in negative "C'mon Tenten it's best not to upset the client," said the blond not wanting for a confrontation to start between Tenten and the woman they were supposed to body guard. Tenten nodded before both of them left the dressing room.

As Tenten and Naruto walked through the hallway the bun haired girl spoke up "I guess we caught her at a bad time. Even a blind person could tell that she was stressed out so the last thing she'd want to see is a couple of her fans bothering her."

"Yeah, maybe that's it, but you have to remember that she only plays Princess Gale in the movies and most likely isn't anything like the character."

"I know that. Even if she was a complete bitch I'd still idolize the character, Princess Gale, it was because of those movies that inspired me to start practicing with ninja tools before I even started the academy."

"Huh those movies were around back then?"

"Yeah, the original trilogy started the year before we… I mean I started the Academy," said Tenten remembering that Naruto was held back twice because the teachers went out of their way to make sure that he didn't advance. "Back then she played a supporting role as the apprentice of the main character, Zephyr. You should have really seen it, Naruto-kun. It was amazing watching her learn how to use chakra and kenjutsu from Zephyr, for me that was what made the newer ones that much greater."

Naruto looked at her "Well how about we watch the original trilogy together when we get back from this mission if we can track down an old tape, that is."

Tenten smiled "I think we should head over to the theaters now. We've kept Shikamaru waiting long enough." Naruto nodded as they headed into the main room before heading to the front door, but just as they reached the door they heard a man screaming.

"Fujikaze-san is running away!" shouted a man's voice before everyone in the studio, including Naruto and Tenten, ran outside to the empty lot just in time to see Yukie run out of the stables on horseback.

Asuma sighed "Well I guess that we have to go catch her now," said the bearded man as Kakashi nodded, but before the two could act the director spoke up.

"No, don't capture her right away. Don't you see that this movie is evolving! We can work a chase on horseback into the script!" screamed the director as everyone looked at him. "I want you two." He pointed to Kakashi and Asuma "to follow Fujikaze with a couple hand held cameras and film this chase." Kakashi was about to tell the man that they were only bodyguards and wouldn't be doing any of the crew's work, but he was cut off when the director spoke again "Of course you will get a bonus added onto your pay if you comply." Both Kakashi and Asuma sighed before nodding in acceptance. Once he saw the approving nods the director smiled "As for everyone else, I want you to dress in those samurai costumes and chase her around the leaf village on horseback without breaking character," he said pointing to a half dozen cast members that were already dressed in the samurai prop armor.

"He's not serious is he?" asked Naruto as the director started going on about how this 'film was evolving'.

Sandayuu sighed "Dead serious, sometimes I don't know if he's a mad genius or just plain crazy," he said as the men already dressed in samurai armor mounted some horses and began the pursuit. "Let's hurry up and get changed!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Outside of the Movie Lot**

**Squad 7 POV**

The members of squad 7 sat down in front of a large gate with a Princess Gale billboard over it, waiting for their sensei to show up. "Good job, getting us kicked out of the theater, mutt," said Sasuke as he looked over to Kiba and his dog, Akamaru.

"Hey Akamaru can't help it if he gets a little over excited! I mean who wouldn't be with Princess Gale on the big screen," defended Kiba as Akamaru let out a yip.

"I gotta agree with you on the last part," added Yagura a he stared happily at a Princess Yuki billboard "But still there was a no animals allowed sign right outside the theater and you kept more noise than Akamaru." Akamaru let out a happy bark at the last part.

Kiba looked at the small dog that was sitting on the ground. "Whose side are you on? You're agreeing with the guy that just openly admitted that he supports those segregation laws."

Sasuke and Yagura sighed before Yagura stated "Looks like Kakashi-sensei is going to be late again."

"Yeah, why did he even make us see that movie anyway?" asked Sasuke making his teammates ponder the same thing before a woman on horseback jumped over the gate. All three members of squad 7 were surprised to see that this woman looked almost identical to Princess Gale.

The woman rode off into the streets, leaving the three boys shocked. "Hey was that her… Princess Gale? Tell me I'm not just seeing thing," said Kiba, but before his teammates could answer the gate opened up and a large number of men clad in samurai armor who were also on horseback began chasing the woman they just saw.

"Don't let the Princess get away!" shouted one of the men as they rode by Squad 7 leaving a dust cloud in their wake.

"That was Princess Gale… we've got to save her!" screamed Kiba before Akamaru transformed into a Kiba clone and the two of them jetted off with Sasuke and Yagura following behind.

**Squad 10 POV**

Right after the three genin left, the second wave of 'samurai' showed up "This is ridiculous," said Naruto in full samurai armor, complete with a helmet and blunted sword.

"C'mon Naruto-kun, how can chasing around someone on horseback not be fun?" asked Tenten who was wearing a female version of the samurai armor as their group took off in the direction that the hoof prints on the ground were heading.

"1. While horses are fast it'd be quicker to catch her by leaping from rooftop to rooftop, 2. I have no horseback riding experience and 3. this armor isn't exactly easy to move around in," responded Naruto before the second wave of 'samurai' caught up just in time to see one of the stunt men try to ensnare Yukie in a net, but before the net could reach it was shred to bits by a pair of spiraling drills that flew down from the rooftops. As soon as the drills hit the ground they turned into a twin pair of Inuzuka with the same face that skidded across the ground for about two feet before they stopped. Naruto and Tenten recognized the face of the two Inuzuka as Kiba "Well looks like this just got fun," said Naruto as Tenten nodded in agreement.

Yukie turned around and took off in the direction opposite of the remaining samurai. "Don't worry Princess Gale, I'll save you!" screamed Kiba as he and Akamaru followed after the woman. The 'samurai' started to pursue, but they were cut off by two more genin that jumped right in front of them and knocked two of the samurai off their horses.

**Sasuke and Yagura POV**

Sasuke and Yagura stood in front of the remaining 'samurai' "You guys aren't going anywhere," said Yagura as he stared the 'samurai' down with his arms crossed. The two genin watched as the two shortest 'samurai' in the pack, while still on horseback, walked forward causing Sasuke to smirk. "Hey Sasuke, those two are different."

"Different?"

"Yeah their chakra is higher than the others. One of them has chunin levels of chakra capacity."

"And the other?"

Yagura started to sweat when he finally felt the 'samurai's' chakra "His chakra is even higher than Kakashi-sensei's," said Yagura causing Sasuke to go wide-eyed.

"Well looks like we just got to hold them off until help arrives then," said Sasuke before he started to run through hand seals which caused the samurai to draw his blade and just as the Uchiha screamed "Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" the samurai swung his sword and an arc of wind chakra cut through the fire ball, causing the flames to quickly extinguish. "Tch, no good"

"I am disappointed by you Uchiha. I was under the impression that a member of one of Konoha's four noble clans was at least honorable yet you would use a jutsu like that in the middle of a populated street," said the 'samurai' as he looked down at the Uchiha from his horse.

"How dare you question my honor!" shouted Sasuke.

"Hmph… MEN!" shouted the 'samurai'

The group 'samurai' looked confused a bit before they all shouted at different times "Hai Taichou!"

The now confirmed leader of the 'samurai' dismounted his horse "Me and my second will handle these two. You will go ahead and recapture Princess Gale and return her to her holding cell."

"Hai Taichou!" they all shouted in unison this time before the group traveled around their captain and his second along with the two, Konoha-nin from both sides.

Sasuke turned to Yagura "Are any of those guys a strong as those two?" Yagura shook his head in negative causing Sasuke to nod "_Good then, the mutt won't have any trouble. Now we just have to deal with these two,_" Sasuke thought before he looked around "_Why haven't any leaf shinobi arrived yet they should have sensed the spike in chakra when I launched my fire ball jutsu_." Sasuke was pulled away from his thoughts when the 'samurai' spoke up.

"Uchiha, I will give you a chance to redeem yourself. We will fight one on one with no jutsu or chakra enhanced strength or do you wish to bring further dishonor to your family name by shying away?" said the 'samurai' before he stabbed his blade into the ground. The samurai raised his fists into the air "come."

"Why did you discard your sword, I thought you samurai took your blades into every battle?"

"You have not yet earned the right to face my blade. I do not wish to dirty my noble sword with the blood of one that is not worthy."

Sasuke reached into his shuriken pouch and threw a volley of shuriken at the 'samurai' only for the samurai to leap to the right and combat roll upon landing to avoid the shuriken that harmlessly landed in the middle of the dirt road. After dodging the shuriken the 'samurai' rushed forward to the Uchiha and threw a punch. Sasuke took the punch to his solar plexus and flew backwards.

Yagura rushed forward and tried to attack the male 'samurai' when his guard was down, but he was halted when the female 'samurai' jumped down from her horse and grabbed the silver haired teen by his wrist "Do any of Konoha's shinobi have any honor?" asked the female 'samurai' Yagura tightened his fist before he saw Sasuke get back up.

Sasuke was holding his mid-section with one hand as he panted hard trying to regain his breath after the wind was knocked out of him. Sasuke coughed "_Damn it, this guy has a nasty punch."_

"That all you got Uchiha?"

Sasuke ran forward and threw a punch that the 'samurai' blocked before grabbing him by the wrist and throwing the Uchiha on the ground. Sasuke quickly recovered by spinning around and landing on his hands before performing a leg sweep to knock the 'samurai' off his feet. The move was successful and the 'samurai' lost his balance.

"Taichou!" shouted the 'samurai's' second.

Sasuke was now standing over the Samurai on the ground and was about to get in a mount position before the 'samurai' clamped his legs around the Uchiha's and pulled him to the ground by turning his body. The Uchiha disappeared in a plume of smoke and was replaced by a nearby cardboard cutout of Princess Gale.

"It seems you've failed to uphold the honor of your clan," said the 'samurai' as he got up from the ground.

Sasuke smirked "Hn, I just remembered something, I'm a shinobi and shinobi **never** let the enemy dictate the rules. We follow our own rules that we as individuals choose and do whatever it takes to win," explained Sasuke before his smirk turned into a frown. "Besides you are projecting a fake aura of honor and fairness to make me believe that this is a fair fight. You even went as far as discarding your sword to make that fake aura more believable. That armor of yours limits my choices when engaging you in a taijutsu fight, I cannot use the direct approach with you, you're too skilled for me to easily get at the gaps in your armor and because we're in a populated are there are very few times I'd get a chance to throw shuriken at you without harming any civilians or causing property damage."

The 'samurai' laughed "You're absolutely correct Uchiha. We shinobi do whatever it takes to win," said the 'samurai' as Sasuke's eyes went wide before his opponent formed a hand seal. The Uchiha felt a huge surge of electricity course through his body before his opponent gave him a swift chop to the neck and let the boy fall to the ground, unconscious.

Yagura started running through some hand seals, but before he could finish the female 'samurai' did the same hand seal as her 'captain' and Yagura went through the same thing as Sasuke.

**End POVs**

Kakashi and Asuma dropped down from the rooftops. "Looks like I need to train my genin a little more. One of them let the enemy dictate the rules, but in his defense he did figure it out… eventually. While the other didn't even realize that he was in the battle to begin with."

Naruto and Tenten removed their helmets. "Hey, if both of you are here then whose watching Yukie?" asked Tenten.

Asuma sighed "Well the director demanded that we film your battle to the very end to see if there was anything he could use and… he wanted it from two angles. Kakashi trusted that Yukie would be safe enough with Kiba, so we complied."

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**End**

I was expecting to at least get on the ship to the land of snow before I finished this chapter… either the flow of my story sucks, I have a bad habit of making things drag out or I underestimated how long this arc will take me. I probably should actually write an outline for this story arc instead of keeping the entire thing in my head.

Anyway shout out to Decius23 for giving me some ideas that I will incorporate into Naruto's fighting style in the future.


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Hmm… when I started I updated every day then I started updating every other day after that I updated once a week and this time it took me two months. I wonder if I'll ever reach the point where I update once a year? **

**Tenten: Your next update better be by next week or I'll cut you where the sun don't shine.**

**NoTailJinchuuriki: Okay, no more long delays just… just put the kunai away! **

**Chapter 23**

Shikamaru was napping in the grass with his hands behind his head by a lake. The lazy Nara woke when he heard a loud noise and opened one eye to see a brunette woman and a horse drinking from the lake. The lazy genin closed his eye and attempted to go back to sleep before a loud, but familiar voice caused the boy to flinch. "Princess Gale! I can't believe it's really you! Wow I can't believe I'm really in your presence," said the voice.

At the mention of the name 'Princess Gale' Shikamaru sat up to see the owner of the voice ,Kiba, talking to the actress that he's seen on billboards and cardboard cut outs for the past week. "_What was her name again… Fujikaze Yukie, but what's she doing here?" _thought the pony tail wearing genin as Kiba continued hounding the obviously annoyed actress.

"So any chance you can sign this?" asked the Inuzuka boy as he held out a notepad and pen. The actress just glared at him before turning back to horse and prepared to mount it. Kiba grabbed the woman by the shoulder "Hey C'm-" said the boy before he froze.

Yukie's eyes widened for a second before she looked at the boy with a bit of worry. The woman waved her hand in front of the boy's face and saw no response. "I put him under a genjutsu," said the voice of the Nara boy causing Yukie to glance over to her side to see an approaching genin. When the Nara boy stood in front of her, she narrowed her eyes at him. "He'll snap out of it in about half an hour. You're Fujikaze Yukie correct?" The woman didn't respond. "_Troublesome,_" thought the genius genin before he sighed "Well I believe I've been hired to bodyguard you."

The woman growled "I'm not going back there," she said in a dangerous voice before mounting the horse. "Let the studio hire someone else because there's no way I'm going to the land of snow," said Yukie before snapping her bridle only to hear her horse neigh, but remain unmoved. She snapped it again only to receive the same reaction. "What?" she asked before looking down to see a thick black shadow connecting her horse and the ponytails wearing genin.

"It's troublesome, but my job is to bodyguard you so, I can't let you out of my sight now that I've seen you."

The woman growled once more before dismounting the horse and began running away. The Nara dispelled his jutsu and hurried after the woman. "Leave me alone I said I wasn't going to the land of Snow. Someone else can do it!"

The Nara boy sighed "I have no intention of bringing you back to the studio. My job is to simply bodyguard you and besides it's far too troublesome to drag you all the way back to the studio," said the boy as he gained on the actress.

The woman slowed down her pace until she stopped "That so?"

"Yep."

Yukie sighed "Well do you know where any good bars are?"

Shikamaru nodded "Yeah, I have to drag my dad home sometimes when he stays out too late or gets to drunk to know where he's going."

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**Elsewhere**

Naruto, Tenten, Kakashi, Asuma, and the director arrived together with the unconscious bodies of Sasuke and Yagura to see several men in samurai style armor tied up in three groups. In the center of these three groups sat Kiba's dog, Akamaru, who let out a happy yip when he saw the Konoha ninja arrive.

Kakashi sighed before untying the three groups of men. After untying them Kakashi turned to Akamaru "I assume that Kiba is with Yukie?" asked the one eyed man who received a happy bark from the dog in confirmation. Kakashi sighed "Well I can only guess that he was thinking that you could lead us to him." The dog let out another bark in confirmation. "Lead away." Akamaru got up and ran in the direction of the lake.

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**Konoha Lake; 10 minutes later**

The group of Konoha shinobi arrived to see Kiba staring into space with his hand extended together with a horse that was currently drinking from the lake. Akamaru ran over to his partner and tried barking to get his attention, which didn't work. The white puppy then tried to bite Kiba's ankle which caused the boy to let out a scream that scared the horse causing it to kick Kiba in the chest and run off. Kiba groaned as he got up before his hand touched something soft and warm. The Inuzuka looked at his hand before smelling it causing the boy to turn green. "I've decided that I hate horses," said the Inuzuka.

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**Bar**

Yukie and Shikamaru were seated on a couple of bar stools. The actress quickly downed her drink "So if you're supposed to be my bodyguard why were you out there by the lake?" Yukie asked the boy that was currently resting his head on his folded arms. "Hey get me another," she called out to the barkeep.

Shikamaru raised his head and turned to the woman "My squad leader wanted me and my other two teammates to go see one of your movies, but I decided to ditch them since it's just too troublesome."

"Why's that?"

"I didn't want to feel like a third wheel."

Yukie raised an eyebrow "They're dating? Well that's unprofessional," she stated in a neutral tone before downing her second drink. "So, cupid, you a fan of my movies?" she asked sarcastically before ordering another drink.

The Nara supported his head on one of his arms before sighing "Can't say, considering I've never seen any of your movies. I never found any movie that entertaining. I get enough entertainment laying on my back and staring at the clouds." Yukie drank about half her drink before stopping to giggle. "What are you laughing at?"

Yukie stopped giggling "nothing," she said with a small smile on her face causing Shikamaru to shrug. Yukie finished her drink "Another one over here," said Yukie.

"I'll take one too," said Shikamaru surprising Yukie.

"Aren't you bit young for this?" she asked with a smile.

Shikamaru pointed to the forehead protector wrapped around his arm "This means that I'm considered an adult. I'm a man in the eyes of my clan and the village."

"A man, huh? Well not too many men I've met call themselves that after ordering a bitch drink," she said before they both downed their drinks. "You need something more manly. Hey barkeep! Get this kid the strongest thing you've got." Shikamaru shuddered "What's the matter? Scared?"

"Troublesome." It was at this moment that Shikamaru noticed a strange glowing crystal that Yukie wore around her neck. After the barkeep placed the drink in front of the Nara, Shikamaru just shrugged and lifted his mug.

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**Konoha Streets**

"Did you get Shikamaru yet?" asked Asuma.

"No, he has his radio seal turned off," answered Naruto.

"Where could he be?" Tenten wondered out loud.

"I bet this kind of thing happens all the time. The loser probably snuck off to take a nap somewhere," Sasuke said smugly. Naruto and Tenten glared at the Uchiha causing the smirk on his face to grow wider "It's not my problem your team consists of two dobes and a girl." As soon as those words were spoken Naruto and Sasuke grabbed the collars of each other's shirts.

Kakashi and Tenten pulled the two away from each other "As much as I'd love to see you kick the teme's ass Naruto we've got a time limit here. We've got to find Yukie and Shikamaru within two hours," said Tenten as Sasuke smirked causing Tenten to glare at him "and the next time I hear you talking bad about Kunoichi or my teammates I'll butcher you."

"Sasuke, this is no way to behave on a mission," scolded Kakashi.

"Hn," Sasuke responded causing Kakashi to sigh before Akamaru let out a few barks.

"Akamaru found Yukie and he says that Shikamaru is with her," said Kiba.

"Shikamaru? I should have known. He's probably the one that put Kiba in a genjutsu in the first place," said Asuma as he put a cigarette in his mouth before lighting it.

All the genin of squad 7 widened their eyes "Since when could that slacker do such powerful genjutsu?" asked Yagura.

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**Restroom in the Bar**

Shikamaru was vomiting over and over into a toilet in the women's restroom since the men's was out of order. "Next time don't underestimate the world of adults," said Yukie with a smirk as she watched the Nara.

Shikamaru was panting and out of breath "I'll keep that in mind," he said sarcastically before another eruption of vomit spewed out of his mouth. "Troublesome woman."

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**Bar**

The team of Konoha shinobi, the director and Sandayuu burst into the bar. "Hey is that a dog!? No animals allowed! Get that flea ridden mutt out of here!" screamed the barkeep as he pointed at the white puppy that was currently scratching on the door to the women's restroom.

Kiba was now ticked "How dare you talk about Akamaru like that! Why I oughta-" screamed the Inuzuka before Yagura covered his mouth and began dragging the Inuzuka out of the bar. As Kiba and Yagura left the bar one of the customers that was sitting in a booth got up and left as well.

Kakashi eye smiled and rubbed the back of his head "Sorry about that. We won't stay long I promise," said the white haired Jonin as Sandayuu opened the door to the restroom.

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**Restroom in the Bar **

"Yukie please come back," pleaded Sandayuu.

Yukie glanced at the man "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm never going to the land of Snow! Let some other actor take over the role of Princess Gale!" shouted the woman as the voices of Kakashi and the barkeep could be heard arguing outside.

"Your career could be in jeopardy if you abandon your role right in the middle of the film. Please listen to reason."

Just then the door to the restroom opened "Sorry, but we've got to leave now," said Kakashi before he glanced at the barkeep from his spot in the doorway. "The barkeep won't let us stay much longer with Akamaru here."

Yukie groaned "Well why don't you just take your dog and-" said Yukie before she was cut off when Kakashi rushed up to her and revealed his sharingan eye.

Yukie went limp and fell into Kakashi's arms, unconscious, "Okay, I'll carry Yukie." Kakashi glanced over to Shikamaru who just spit into the toilet "Tenten and Naruto, I want you two to gather up your teammate."

The two nodded before they walked over to Shikamaru and slung his arms over their shoulders "And I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," said Tenten earning a groan from Shikamaru.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Land of Snow**

In the throne room of a fortress sat a dark haired man "Are you certain she has the Hex crystal?" asked the man.

"Yes, I'm also certain that this Yukie is really Princess Kazahana Koyuki," said a purple haired man that knelt before the black haired man.

"Good, good, anything else to report?"

"She is also being accompanied by Sharingan no Kakashi and Sarutobi Asuma of the 12 guardians."

The dark haired man frowned before a grin enveloped his face "Well then I guess this will be a good opportunity to test how well our chakra armor technology really works isn't it, Nadare?" the man asked before taking a sip from his wine glass.

Nadare smirked "Yes, lord Dotou."

Just then the heavy doors to the throne room burst open and two of Dotou's bodyguards, Fubuki and Mizore, stormed in. "What is the meaning of this!?"

The two bodyguards knelt down on one knee "Our apologies lord Dotou, but there are some outsiders out front that are demanding that they meet with you," Mizore answered.

"You bother me for this? Just kill them and be… wait how did they get this close to the castle? No outsider should be able to get this close unless I allow it."

Fubuki gulped "They… killed everyone in their way and they said if we don't bring you to them they'll destroy the castle too."

"WHAT!" Dotou stood from his throne before turning to Nadare "Gather ever able soldier in the castle and ready the canons." Nadare nodded. "No outsider will get the best of me," spoke Dotou as he headed to the rooftop.

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**Outside Dotou's fortress**

Dotou stepped out onto the snow covered rooftop and headed towards the edge to glare down at the interlopers that dared threaten him on his own land while being flanked by Fubuki and Mizore. Dotou glared down to see three figures in the snowfall. "Where are the others? I thought you said they wiped out everyone in their path," Dotou whispered to his bodyguards.

"That is all of them," Fubuki whispered back.

Dotou's eyes widened "impossible, are you telling me that my men couldn't handle three people." Dotou watched his three adversaries more carefully and took in their features. Sadly, he couldn't see much of them considering all three of them wore a straw hat and blue poncho. The one standing in the front was the second tallest among them and carried a huge sword on his back. The one to the front man's right seemed a bit slimmer than the other two making it a fair bet that this one might be female. The last one was a giant in height and carried around some strange object that Dotou could not make out on his back.

"Glad that you could join us, Dotou?" said the one in the middle who was the obvious leader of this band of three.

"What do you want?" asked Dotou keeping his fear from showing on his face perfectly.

"What we want is for you to surrender your chakra armor technology to us as well as the strongest soldier in your army."

"No," said Dotou before he snapped his fingers and several dozen soldiers flew out of the castle towers with mechanical batwings, canons shot out of the openings in the castle walls all aimed at the three, another few dozen soldiers stormed out from some trapdoors laid across the forest in front of the castle and cut off every escape route available to the three intruders.

The leader of the three started laughing "I was hoping you'd say that." Once his laughter died down the leader turned to the tall man "Han."

The tall man nodded, letting some of the snow that collected on his straw hat drop to the ground "Yes, comrade," said Han before he stepped forward and steam started to shoot out of his body, melting all of the snow that collected on his hat in an instant as well as tearing apart and burning his blue poncho revealing his red armor. The steam soon surrounded his entire body as his two comrades moved away from him before five white tails shot out from his backside and a giant horse emerged from the steam. Everyone opposing this beast took a step backwards. "Bijuudama!" screamed the horse as a giant black sphere materialized right in front of the beast's mouth and pointing straight at Dotou.

"Last chance… surrender your chakra armor technology to us or die," spoke the leader with a deadly serious voice.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End

Yeah, short I know. I guess I kind of need a little while to get back into it after taking such a long break from writing.


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